The Chernobyl boom: more than 100,000 tourists since the beginning of the year

More than 100,000 tourists visited this year the exclusion zone of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, the scene of the largest nuclear disaster in history, which constitutes a new record to date in 2019.

The Ukrainian state agency for the management of the exclusion zone said in a statement on Facebook: "Since the beginning of this year we have received 107,000 visitors in the exclusion zone".

Less than 3,000 people went from January to February this year to see the site of the largest nuclear accident in history, but from March, the number of tourists began to increase, especially since the release of the HBO Chernobyl series, in May. Visitors are also attracted by the removal of traffic barriers in the region and the improvement of infrastructure.

The flow of tourists in the region has increased significantly in recent years and, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, published in April 2015, he visited since 2015. have multiplied by ten.

80% of visitors are foreign tourists, mainly from the United Kingdom (15,738), Poland (9,387), Germany (7,826), the United States (5,580) and the Czech Republic ( 4,063).

According to official estimates, the explosion occurred at dawn on April 26, 1986 would have resulted in up to 200 tons of radioactivity material of 50 million curies, the equivalent of 500 atomic bombs like the one launched in Hiroshima.

Radiation continues to affect thousands of people in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, where 70 per cent of some 200,000 square kilometers of contaminated land is located.

By the way, the Ukrainian police announced Friday in a statement the arrest of "six men entered illegally (in the Chernobyl exclusion zone) for purposes of extreme tourism". Offenders are between 20 and 46 years old and are all residents of Kiev, the police said.

"It's wonderful that #ChernobylHBO inspired a wave of tourism in the exclusion zone, but yes, I could see the pictures that are around." If you visit it, remember the terrible tragedy that took place there"warned the creator and scriptwriter of the miniseries, Craig Mazin, after the broadcast of the first chapters." Be respectful to all those who have suffered and sacrificed their lives, "he wrote on his Twitter account to the largest number of tourists who flooded the networks with photos and videos that were in bad taste or inappropriate. , because of the historical context of the place.