Today Prypiat and Chernobyl are visited by thousands of tourists each year, eager to witness the ghostly remains of a once properous town and get up close to the now infamous Reactor number 4 sarcophagus, the concrete housing which encases the power plant.
The current sarcophagus is starting to collapse since its creation was rushed, there are now plans to build a newer structure to completely cover the plant, this will allow workers to dismantle the sarcophagus and deal debris left inside more easily.
Day trippers from Kiev can pay to get into the zone of alienation, visit returning villages who have resumed living a normal life inside the zone and many other sights such as graveyard full of trucks, helicopters and armoured vehicles. Another type of tourists are the hunters, people paying for the privilege to stalk and kill animals in the wilderness created by the abandoned landscape, weather it be on foot or from a helicopter.
Even though hunting and fishing is prohibited in the zone, some people are still willing to pay the right money to get their chance.
Scientists were amazed at the increase and return of wildlife to the zone, many believe that the radiation doesn’t pose as big a threat to the animals as is does to humans, although research has shown that the animals are suffering from depressed fertility.
Even now people are living relatively normal lives in the zone, eating and growing food in the toxic soil, some claim to have returned soon after the incident and believe to be in good health despite the radiation.
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