Chernobyl – Pulse of the Planet

Frommer : Believe it or not there are now guided tours to Chernobyl.

Pauline Frommer is Editorial Director for the Frommer guidebooks and Frommers.com.

Frommer : It’s one of the most popular destinations in Eastern Europe. You fly into Kiev in the Ukraine. You drive two hours to Chernobyl and you’re taken around. You see the old Ferris wheel that’s still standing. If you saw the HBO series, you see that the there were teams of men going out trying to kill all the dogs, because they were worried that dogs would breed and bring radiation to other parts of the Ukraine. They didn’t get them all. So there’s all kinds of wild animals including dogs roaming, as well as houses which have full trees growing through them now, because it’s many years since Chernobyl. And do you do your tour with the tour guide who is wearing a Geiger counter. And before you get back on the bus to leave, they wand you with that Geiger counter. And I was reading about one visitor who had stupidly sat down on the ground and gotten dust all over themselves. And they said to them “you have to leave your pants”. They had to ride back to Kiev in their underwear, because the pants were too irradiated to bring back. They say that the amount of radiation you get by spending a day in Chernobyl is no more than you get at the dentist doing an x-ray. So they say it’s safe.

I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

Chernobyl

Comrade, we get a whole lot of Levis this way!

Air Date:11/30/2021

Scientist:

Transcript:

Science Destinations – Chernobyl A while back, we ran a program on Los Vegas, Nevada, being a destination for those interested in visiting the sites where Atomic Bomb testing was done. Well, there's a companion science tourism destination in Russia. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Frommer : Believe it or not there are now guided tours to Chernobyl. Pauline Frommer is Editorial Director for the Frommer guidebooks and Frommers.com. Frommer : It's one of the most popular destinations in Eastern Europe. You fly into Kiev in the Ukraine. You drive two hours to Chernobyl and you're taken around. You see the old Ferris wheel that's still standing. If you saw the HBO series, you see that the there were teams of men going out trying to kill all the dogs, because they were worried that dogs would breed and bring radiation to other parts of the Ukraine. They didn't get them all. So there's all kinds of wild animals including dogs roaming, as well as houses which have full trees growing through them now, because it's many years since Chernobyl. And do you do your tour with the tour guide who is wearing a Geiger counter. And before you get back on the bus to leave, they wand you with that Geiger counter. And I was reading about one visitor who had stupidly sat down on the ground and gotten dust all over themselves. And they said to them "you have to leave your pants". They had to ride back to Kiev in their underwear, because the pants were too irradiated to bring back. They say that the amount of radiation you get by spending a day in Chernobyl is no more than you get at the dentist doing an x-ray. So they say it's safe. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.