Meanwhile, back in Chernobyl

But what to do with that extra free day? Despite the distractions of contemporary Kiev, I couldn8217;t get Chernobyl out of my mind after coming across a web site written by Yelena, a biker who zooms down the abandoned roads of the contaminated zone and calls herself the Kid of Speed. On her web site, kiddofspeed.com, Yelena waxes lyrical about the peace of the countryside, left to nature since the residents were evacuated following the nuclear power plant disaster on April 26, 1986. But Yelena detests journalists and refuses to give interviews. I was stuck until I found a small business run by a former Chernobyl worker that organizes single- or multiple-day tours to the zone. Chernobyl External Services deals mainly with foreign specialists going to ecological conferences, of course, but it will also get out the white minibus and roll out the red carpet for the curious layperson. If 20 people can be found to fill the bus, then the cost for each individual is only 60.

The firm says that on a short visit to Chernobyl, the danger from radiation is now no greater than flying in an airplane, and advertises its guided tour as a 8220;safe adventure.8221; In fact, CES is not the only company offering trips to the zone, although the number of takers among visitors from overseas has evidently not been great so far. The contaminated air is only one disincentive: in order to enter the 30-km exclusion zone that was thrown around the nuclear plant after the accident and is still in force, visitors need permission from the SBU, the Ukrainian successor to the Soviet KGB8230;

The silence is eerie in ghost towns like Terekhi, abandoned after the accident at Chernobyl. Mykola Dmitruk, the information officer for the ministry, said that scientists are still not sure how safe the Chernobyl area is and that, personally, he does not recommend visits to ordinary tourists.

8220;The tour operators include a day at Chernobyl,8221; he said. 8220;Twenty to 30 people sign up, but when Day Zero comes, most of them decide to stay in Kiev. We get one or two people coming. Mostly they have an interest in ecology.8221; Our last stop was the village of Ilyntsi, once home to 100 people but now nearly deserted except for a few elderly residents8230;In the yard of one house, clean washing was hanging on a line. We rang the bell and were invited into the home of Galya Pavlovna. Weeping, the old woman, originally from southern Ukraine, explained how she had married for a second time and come to the zone with her new husband. Then he had died and she had been left in what she called an 8220;alien8221; place8230; As a parting gift, Pavlovna pressed on me a pillowcase decorated with Ukrainian embroidery. To my shame, I passed this gift from the heart, together with myself, through the dosimeter when I departed. The radiation reading was normal8230;

Excerpted from 8216;Moscow Times8217;, April 21 8211; 27