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Russians drove through radioactive Red Forest by Chernobyl with no radioactive gear on
Viewing the highly contaminated Red Forest using infrared film.
I visited the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone (EZ) twice while I lived in Ukraine. Each time I was accompanied by a local guide. You absolutely must carry a dosimeter with you at all times in the EZ. The Red Forest is well known to be a highly radioactive area. There are warning signs everywhere. I remember one time we were walkng in a seemingly safe wooded area and my guide held up a fist (STOP!) and pointed to the left. I looked that way and after a few seconds I saw something which appeared to be metal. My guide took out her handheld dosimeter and said to follow her. The metal object was a badly rusted scoop from an earth-moving machine. At a distance of about 30 yards the dosimeter told us that this metal object was highly radioactive and deadly. We quickly retreated. The scoop was apparently used in the 1986 battle to put out the fires at the destroyed Reactor Number 4. My guide was demonstrating that even in a pastoral setting you must always be on the alert in the EZ. And you can't just barrell through the Exclusion Zone and think you are protected simply because you are in a battle tank. That attitude is suicidal.
Viewing the highly contaminated Red Forest using infrared film.
3.28.22
Russian soldiers driving near the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site did so without wearing any radioactive protection. The soldiers drove their armored vehicles through a highly toxic zone called the Red Forest, kicking up clouds of radioactive dust as they traveled, workers at the site said. One of the workers claimed driving through the area with no protection was "suicidal" because the radioactive dust they inhaled would likely cause internal damage in their bodies, according to Reuters. The Red Forest is the most radioactively contaminated part of the zone around Chernobyl, about 100 kilometers, or 65 miles, north of Kyiv. The two workers both said they saw Russian tanks and other armored vehicles moving through the toxic area. Russian troops invaded Slavutych, Ukraine, which is near the Chernobyl power plant and home to many of its workers, on early Saturday, seizing the town’s hospital and briefly kidnapping its mayor. They left on Monday after completing their task of surveying the defunct Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
I visited the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone (EZ) twice while I lived in Ukraine. Each time I was accompanied by a local guide. You absolutely must carry a dosimeter with you at all times in the EZ. The Red Forest is well known to be a highly radioactive area. There are warning signs everywhere. I remember one time we were walkng in a seemingly safe wooded area and my guide held up a fist (STOP!) and pointed to the left. I looked that way and after a few seconds I saw something which appeared to be metal. My guide took out her handheld dosimeter and said to follow her. The metal object was a badly rusted scoop from an earth-moving machine. At a distance of about 30 yards the dosimeter told us that this metal object was highly radioactive and deadly. We quickly retreated. The scoop was apparently used in the 1986 battle to put out the fires at the destroyed Reactor Number 4. My guide was demonstrating that even in a pastoral setting you must always be on the alert in the EZ. And you can't just barrell through the Exclusion Zone and think you are protected simply because you are in a battle tank. That attitude is suicidal.