This is a very popular question
And to answer on it in a few words is complicated
Definitely the places we're going to visit are safe
Because this area is under international control
And we have automatic system for checking the level of radiation
But definitely we have some hot spots even in Pripyat city
where the radiation like 40-50 microsieverts
Sometimes 300...
300 means that if you get it for just in a few minutes nothing serious would happen to you
If you stay maybe for a month near this source of radiation
You may get some problems with your skin or something like that
That's right. We have inside the Chernobyl zone 3 types of radiation
Gamma radiation, but it's natural
Sun's radiation
We have beta radiation because of beta radioactive particles
Caesium and Strontium - we still have them after the accident
And we have alfa radiation because of Plutonium
As you know we've got about 8 tones of Plutonium outside the reactor because of the accident
This is a very popular question as well
It has a taste but not a metal taste
Cause from the very beginning people got a lemon taste
Later they've got a metal taste but not because of radioactive elements, not because of the radiation
They dropped down inside the reactor
to the melted part of the reactor a lot of lead
many many thousands of tones
and the first batch of lead vaporized
and people got the vapor inside
So the metal taste was a taste of the lead
Yeah, it's quite possible
Because when the air is ionized, like after the accident...
...that's right. I know a man who saw the explosion personally
He was the head of the police when the accident happened
Just 650 feets from the reactor
And he told me that it looked like a something glowing at night
Like a column of light going to the sky
It was an ionized air
You know a lot of people drank a lot of vodka after the accident
Because it was like an unofficial information
I mean for the liquidators
That vodka would help them to survive
I believe it isn't true because scientists from our scientific center said that
maybe vodka absorbs not that much radiation as water
but there is no big difference
To get safe you must replace as much water inside your body with vodka
But definitely you would die because of an alcoholic intoxication
So better not to do it
It doesn't work
That's right. It's for the spirit and for relaxation
Maybe
If it's a radioactive cloud then the rain could be radioactive
but this one I believe is not
So don't worry about it
But it's better to find some shelter, yes
But just because of the rain, not because of the radiation
In sense of radiation it is safe
Because as you understand all the radioactive particles, radioactive ashes were falling down from the sky
And the windows and doors were closed
So everything was on the roofs and on the walls but outside of the buildings
So inside there is almost no radiation
Because of the night accident or in total?
You see, because of the night accident officially have died 31 people --
Operators, 29 firefighters
and night shift operators
Not all of them but some of them
2 operators and 29 firefighters officially died in Moscow
In the hospital #6
Later definitely we've got more victims
But you can imagine - there were a lot of pilots to drop down lead and sand from the helicopters
And definitely some of them died fast
In a year maybe...
A lot of soldiers died
I mean biorobots - soldiers who cleaned the roofs of the reactor #4 and #3 - the most contiminated places
radioactive places. Instead of robots
Cause robots collapsed because of the radiation
They had to use people because they had no time to wait
They had to clean up that area as fast as possible and to build the first sarcophagus
Because of the accident just 5% of the radioactive fuel got outside
And the rest is still inside...
And the full load of one reactor is 200 tons of Uranium
So you can imagine that more than 190 tones of Uranium are still inside...
That means that inside the reactor #4 we still have a huge radiation
The problem is that radiation destroys any kind of material
Even concrete
And the first sarcophagus was made of concrete
So that is why it was partially collapsed
And that is why the expiry date of the first one was just 30 years
The scientists calculated that it would be enough to be destroed by radiation from inside
So that's why they had to cover it with the new one
The first one was partially collapsed
It was not a very big city
In 1986 when the disaster happened there were about 50 thousand people
But a lot of children - about 17 thousand children
Because it was kind of luxury city
They've got good salaries
That's right. There were young people here
They haven't got any cemeteries here
No, because they've got first inhabitants in the city in 1977
So when the disaster happened the city was just 8 years old
...9 years old
It was kind of Soviet dream or American dream for Soviet people
They've got everything here
They've got good food in the markets, for example
They've got even exotic fruits like pineapples or bananas
And meat
Cause the rest of the Soviet Union was very poor
So the Soviet Union created here kind of a paradise city
Not in Pripyat
The second day after the accident when the Soviet Union realised that the situation is dangerous for people
All the population of the city was evacuated to Kyiv region
The next day after the accident
There were radioactive clouds, they started to measure the radiation
Radiation was rising so they decided that the city was dangerous for people
And by buses, by rockets - these are hydrofoil boats, people were evacuated to Kyiv direction
And never came back
But they've got the information that they would come back in three days
We have more and more visitors inside Chernobyl zone
People are very curious to look at this place
Especially after this HBO series
But anyway last year we've got, if I'm not mistaken, about 70 thousand visitors
This autumn I believe we would have maybe 30% more
Especially after the HBO series
Even today we get more people than on previous season
So people come here to see the place of the disaster
Like an adventure...