All language subtitles for Ch5.Inside.Chernobyl.with.Ben.Fogle.1080p.HDTV.x265.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

RADIATION DETECTOR CLICKS AND BEEPS

Wow.

SIREN WAILS

When the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor
exploded in 1986,

it changed Everything.

I was 13 years old

and it was just when I was
starting to understand the world.

And Chernobyl for me
was such a massive

punctuation mark.

Now, 35 years after the disaster,

I'm travelling to the most
radioactive place on Earth.

This is the accident
and emergency department.

Imagine the horrors
that went on in here.

I've been granted special permission

to explore some of Chernobyl's
secrets...

Some people believe this was a mind
controller, like a brain scorcher.

..going inside the very control room
where the fatal mistake was made...

Goodness me.

I mean, this is unbelievable.

..and seeing close-up
the tomb of the doomed reactor.

Wow. I can't quite believe
I'm actually in here.

What has Chernobyl now become?

Oh, look.

So, someone's been staying in here.

This is the Chernobyl squatter.

And what does it mean
for the generations to come?

I see this as a very timely visit.

Because the world
is at tipping point.

I'm hoping that by visiting
this place, the people,

maybe I'll find some hope
that all is not lost.

I'm on my way to the scene of the
world's worst nuclear accident.

So, this road doesn't lead anywhere
but into the Restricted Zone now?

We call it simply The Zone.
The Zone, yes.

Where I'm going, I have to be
accompanied

by a government sanctioned expert.

Nikolai Fomin has in-depth
knowledge of the risks.

So this is the checkpoint?

Still pretty highly militarised area
so please prepare your documents.

Beyond this border crossing
is the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone,

a region so contaminated

it was closed off from the rest
of the world for over a decade.

It feels quite strange.
It's heavily militarised,

there's load of police
and it's heavily controlled

in terms of who can go in
and even who can go out.

From now on, the law dictates
that the increased radiation

I'm about to experience
must be continually monitored.

I've got the meter for you.
The dosimeter. Yeah.

This is the device that measures
your total radiation exposure,

your dose. So this I have to wear
around my neck? Yes.

And this is the Geiger counter.
Yeah.

These units measure
radiation level.

It's never zero, right? So there is
always a little bit of background

radiation all over the world.

So right now we are measuring
0.13 microsieverts per hour.

If radiation levels exceed normal
reading, it will go off.

It will start flashing red,
it will start beeping

so you'll never miss that.
OK, we're good to go.

Two worlds. I'm about to
step over the threshold.

I'll be spending a week
living inside the Exclusion Zone,

which covers an area of more than
1,000 square miles -

larger than Luxembourg.

The Zone was established
in the aftermath of the worst

nuclear disaster in history.

On April 26th 1986,

Chernobyl's reactor No 4 exploded.

The resulting fire lasted ten days,
releasing 400 times as much

radioactive material as the
atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

The entire civilian population
in the surrounding towns

and villages was forcibly evacuated,

later told never to return.

Are these radiation signs?
Yes, they are.

Stay away from the warning signs

and from now on
don't touch anything.

I'll be going inside the stricken
power plant itself,

but first I want to visit
the ghost of Chernobyl.

We're in the city now.
Yes, we're in Pripyat.

In front of us
is main street of Pripyat.

This is the main street?
This is the main street.

So, everything, all these trees,
this has all grown

since it was abandoned? Yeah.

Pripyat was still being constructed
when its 48,000 residents all left.

It was designed to be the model
socialist city, a Soviet Utopia.

Never really seen anything like it.

I've Been to war zones, I've seen
places that have, you know,

experienced great upheaval and
changes but never quite like this.

I'm imagining mums and their
pushchairs and children squealing.

You know, a bustling place.

And now look at it.

I was expecting to see a few
derelict buildings but not this.

This is not even a town.

This is an entire city,
with five secondary schools,

two sports stadiums
and its own Palace of Culture,

all left to ruin
and consumed by nature.

That's incredible, I'm on a
multistorey school building

and there's trees
growing through the floor.

I do feel like
I've gone back in time.

To me, that looks like sort of
dosimetry to test for radiation.

The great irony is that everyone
here was preparing for

a nuclear catastrophe

that came from the other side
of the Atlantic that would

come in the form of a bomb, not in
the form of their own power station.

Wow.

Iconic, poignant.

It's kind of everything, this.

Cos this was the theme park
that never was.

The abandoned city of Pripyat
is unlike anywhere I've ever been.

Life changed here forever

a day after the world's
worst nuclear disaster.

By all accounts Pripyat had been
a happy, thriving city,

full of the hopes and dreams
of a young population.

The average age was 26.

It was built just 3km
from the Chernobyl Power Plant

for workers and their families,

with brand-new facilities to
rival the West.

Wow.

WHISTLE PEEPS

CHEERING

Back in 1986 this was
state of the art in the USSR.

This was unheard of cos Pripyat,
this was a model town, a model city.

I suppose the comparison in
the United Kingdom is Milton Keynes.

You know, this was built for purpose
and the living standards here

were far better than anywhere
else in the Soviet Union.

It makes me smile more in here
than other places,

with an air sadness as well

cos there would have been so many
happy times that people had in here.

The Chernobyl No 4 reactor

exploded in the early hours
of April 26th, 1986.

When Pripyat awoke,

toxic levels of radiation
were already engulfing the area.

But no warning was given. People
continued their lives as normal.

Alexander Sirota was a nine-year-old
schoolboy at the time.

So, what are your memories
from the 26th of April 1986?

So this is the school here?

Right through here? Yes.

This is You? Yes.
This is poignant.

Wow.

Alexander was sent back to school,

despite the fact that radiation
levels in the city

had reached alarming levels.
Incredibly, the Soviet authorities

waited 36 hours before
starting an evacuation.

Can I ask if you or your family

suffered long-term
health implications?

I-I really can't even imagine
what he went through.

That 36 hour delay,
so much is made about that.

Without doubt,

that cost people their health
and probably their lives.

The Soviet Union did not want to
admit, it was embarrassing,

it wasn't... It wasn't Soviet.

You know, a reactor couldn't
explode, there was disbelief

but there was also denial
and denial cost lives.

By the afternoon,
confusion had descended on Pripyat.

No official information
was being provided

other than a small fire
on the roof of the power plant.

But there was one place in the city
that had already been a witness

to the terrifying events
that were unfolding.

Oh, hello, we've got company.

In my mind this is one of the most
significant buildings, really,

in Pripyat cos this is
the hospital, Hospital 126.

Everyone who went to the plant that
night to fight the little fire

on the roof that we now know
was this...

..this world-shattering explosion...

..would have been taken
in this door.

Remember to just not touch stuff,
yeah.

In the hours after the explosion,
108 firefighters and plant workers,

suffering from acute radiation
sickness,

were taken through these corridors.

This is the accident
and emergency department.

I'm trying to imagine the chaos
and but also the unknown, really.

No-one really knew why all these
firefighters were coming

and why they were vomiting.

The contamination they left
is still a danger today.

That's the reason I've got a mask on
right now, all those dust particles.

Don't really want those
going into my nose and mouth.

Cos this is one of the most
radioactive parts of Pripyat.

All the first responders
were heavily radioactive

from fighting those fires.

Anyone exposed to radiation at the
power plant should have been washed

and dressed in uncontaminated
clothing before they arrived here.

That never happen.

This is kind of strange.

There are still the rags that the
nurses were using on the firemen.

If I use my dosimeter that is
picking up beta...

BEEPING AND CLICKING

It's already gone
the highest it's been.

The reading is 60 times higher

than the average background
radiation just outside The Zone.

I'm not going to spend
very long in here.

I'm obviously being very sensible.

But it's the invisibility of the
radiation that they would have had

as well, they wouldn't have had a
clue. They didn't have these.

These were just firemen
who had burns

and unknown symptoms
that caused vomiting.

28 people brought to this hospital
after the explosion

lost their lives
within three months.

It's unclear how many would
later suffer ill health as a result

of their exposure to radiation
that night.

I think of all the buildings
I've been into in Pripyat,

this is...the most chilling,
most haunting.

Imagine the horrors
that went on in here,

the number of lives that were lost

cos this was a town
of 48,000 people.

In fact, they called it a city.

So there would have been many, many
pregnant women, lots of newborns.

And just 36 hours after the accident

this, along with the whole city,
was evacuated.

A whole working hospital, gone.

Look at it now.

I've been told that beneath this
pile of rather innocent-looking sand

is the entrance to the basement,

one of the most toxic parts
of the whole Chernobyl.

All of the uniforms from the first
responders, the firefighters -

so their boots, their tunics
their hats - was taken down

into the basement where it was left

because they were so toxic,
so radioactive,

they couldn't let anyone go near it.

The basement was only sealed
a few years ago to stop trespassers

intent on venturing into one of
Chernobyl's deadliest sites.

Nikolai wants to show me
some footage

of what's actually down there.

This is the basement of the hospital
before it was buried. Mm-hm.

Levels of radiation there
are insanely high.

72... 700. 720...
That's off the scale now, you see.

And that's a pair
of fireman's boots.

The main risk is not even the dose
of radiation you obtained there,

it's dust. All those tiny partials
of radioactive material,

if you ingest any of those, even
the microscopic ones you cannot see,

they are capable
of killing human beings.

Are these authorised individuals?

No, I'm pretty sure
they are trespassers.

Cos it's strictly
forbidden to go there.

Although in recent years authorities
have allowed some

very strictly controlled tours
inside the wider Zone area...

..illegal thrill-seekers,
driven largely by social media,

continue to be a problem here.

I think these guys are doing it
for adrenaline, attention...

Showing off.
..social media, showing off.

That's what drives people to take
the risk and go down there.

What about the firemen's helmets,
are they down there?

There was one helmet that
somebody took from the basement

and put on the ground floor
of the hospital building in Pripyat.

That was in front of
the main entrance for years.

Now it's gone. Somebody took it.

So somewhere out there is a highly
radioactive fireman's helmet?

Yeah, and I hope
that's within The Zone.

I really hope
they didn't take it out

because that's
the worst case scenario.

Cos if you take something
radioactive from here,

it can cause a lot of trouble.

Radiation has no taste,
it's invisible, you can't see it,

you can't smell it.

The levels of radiation in the
uniforms are a sobering reminder

of just how toxic some parts
of The Zone still are.

Scientists predict the Chernobyl
reactor site will be uninhabitable

for at least 20,000 years.

Containing the disaster is ongoing.

Almost 3,000 people still
work at the power plant.

No-one can stay within
10km of the site

and for some workers
this is a way of life.

So you do this everyday, basically,
when you go into the Control Zone.

Clean.

This just analyses what I've got
on me, if I'm contaminated or not.

That says I'm clean.
It's good news.

I'm spending my first night at one
of the few lodgings in The Zone.

Yes, of course.

BEEPING

OK.

OK. Over here?

VOICEOVER: To limit
my dose of radiation,

I'm only allowed to stay in The Zone
for up to 14 days at a time.

Wow.

It's actually a lot more comfortable
than I thought this was going to be.

But it is very weird
that I am just a few of kilometres

from the Chernobyl
that I remember melting down

when I was a 13-year-old. And here
I am, about to have my first night.

And I've even got a memory of home.
That's nice.

I've been advised that boots
should maybe be left outside

just because they've been touching
dirt and dust that might be

a little bit more radioactive
than anything else.

So these need to be left outside.

The invisible threat of radiation
is ever present in The Zone.

Tomorrow, I'm going to the very
heart of where it all started.

The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is
a strange and unsettling place,

filled with haunting human stories
of a paradise lost.

I want to get closer to the events
that actually unfolded

in the early hours of April 26th
1986,

and so that can only lead me
to one place.

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
itself.

This, back in 1986,
was ground zero.

When the roof blew off

that was one of the things
that we were most fearful of.

Thousands of miles away in the UK,
I remember being terrified of it.

What happens if that reached me?

Now I'm here.

I'm...going to go in there.

How mad is that?

An enormous steel arch now shields
the highly radioactive remains

of Chernobyl's doomed
No 4 reactor unit.

I've been given permission to go
inside the actual control room

where the disaster unfolded,

which for decades has been
completely off limits.

I'm heading into the inner workings
of Chernobyl.

So, you have to make sure there is
nothing that can be contaminated

so the only thing that I'm wearing
of my own is my pants.

They may need to be changed
after this.

Are we ready? I think so.

From now on we have to move quickly.

The power plant is vast

and my permitted dose of radiation
strictly controlled.

This is pretty extraordinary,
this, to...

..be given access into the

workings of Chernobyl.

Pretty amazing.

Lots of activity here,
there's lots of people working here,

obviously, ensuring that it's safe.

Wow, it's endless.

The 800-metre so-called
golden corridor

links what remains of Chernobyl's
reactor 4

to its three other reactors,

which were largely undamaged
in the explosion.

So that says Control Room 1?
Yes. So that's in there.

I'll only have a very limited
and restricted time

inside the heavily contaminated
shell of Control Room 4.

So, engineer Valerii Kulishenko

first takes me to see
what it WOULD have looked like.

Feels like going back in time now.
So, this is the control room

of reactor No 3,

the sister reactor
to the one that exploded.

On the night of the accident,

up the corridor
in Control Room Number 4,

engineers were carrying out
complex reactor tests

that were spiralling out of control.

As an exact mirror to
Control Room Number 4,

this was the button
that doomed Chernobyl.

This unprecedented
chain of events had begun,

and the final decision was made
to shut it down.

The button was turned...

..and that was it. Disaster.

The shutdown triggered
a massive power surge.

Oh, my goodness.

The core overheated and, seconds
later, the first explosion,

followed soon after by a second.

This is truly extraordinary.

I am standing on
reactor No 3.

So, each of these is a fuel rod.

1,661 to be exact.

This is an exact mirror
of reactor No 4.

This blew right through the ceiling.
Everything came off.

This is what people thought
was impossible.

But what you must remember
is we're talking 1986.

That was when nuclear energy was in
its infancy, it was transitioning

from weapon to source of power

and the USSR were producing
these power stations

faster than anyone else,

but they were also cutting corners.

These reactors weren't designed
with a concrete and steel dome

to contain the radiation.

Two engineers were killed
instantly in the explosion

while the night shift in
Control Room Number 4

were exposed to lethal levels
of radiation.

So, there's a little hatch here.

It looks like I'm going to be
given another dosimeter.

Kind of shows that I'm now heading
into a more vulnerable part

of Chernobyl. There's much higher
radiation where we're going now.

I'm now heading into the heart
of the Chernobyl story...

Through here?

..where many of the decisions and
actions that led to the disaster

played out.

So, this door goes into
Control Room Number 4?

I mean, this is pretty extraordinary
because beyond this door

is a control room
that changed the world.

I mean, this is unbelievable.

Goodness me.

I don't have long to take it in.

Five minutes to absorb all of this.
Wow.

In terms of places of historical
significance this is right up there

because, arguably,
this was the location

of the world's greatest mistake.

Oh, my goodness.
It's a time capsule.

Lots of things have been removed.
Where are they?

Stolen over the years.

It's hard to even imagine
the terrifying events

that took place here.

The panic, the fear,
the horrific effects of radiation.

The reading is pretty high in here.
It's about as high

as I've seen during my whole time
around Chernobyl.

But what a profound,
extraordinary, moving place.

I mean, look at this.

Soviet authorities blamed
the disaster on an inexperienced

night shift failing to follow
safety protocols.

But was it human error,
flaws in the design

or was the Soviet nuclear
programme's technology

just unstable?

Time, we have to go.

Then my time was up.

OK, we gotta go.

I doubt I'll ever come back into
here but, wow, what an experience.

It's a reminder,
I suppose, of our mortality.

I'll be returning to the power plant
later in my journey

to see something
perhaps even more extraordinary -

the tomb of the doomed reactor,
deeper inside the huge steal arch.

There are very few people
who witnessed first-hand

the events of that night
and lived to tell their story.

I'm returning to the ghost town
of Pripyat

to meet one person that did...

So, this is the police station?

..a former policeman
called Alexey Moskalenko.

Alexey was a 29-year-old officer
with a young family

when the disaster happened.

Incredibly, he was on patrol
directly outside the power station

when reactor 4 exploded.

Despite his injuries, long after
his own family had been evacuated,

Alexey stayed on in Pripyat
to police the enormous,

life-threatening clean-up operation.

Where are we going now?

So this, this is the claw?

Apparently, this grappling claw
was attached to a crane

and used to handle large chunks

of ultra-radioactive graphite
ejected by the explosion.

Does that not mean that this is
highly radioactive?

BEEPING AND CLICKING

OK. I don't want you to overdo it!

That was as high as I've seen it.

Toxic debris was scattered
all over the roof of reactor 3,

spewing out lethal doses
of radiation.

Attempts to use robots
to clear the area failed

so another method was needed.

The army of people drafted in
for the deadly task

became known as the liquidators.

Every shovel they used

and every item of makeshift
protective clothing they wore

had to be safely disposed of after
each potentially fatal mission.

Thousands of liquidators
are thought to have died

as a result of exposure
to radiation.

Do you think people sacrificed their
lives because they had to

or did they do it for their country?

Did you...
Did you sacrifice your health?

You were given five years.

It's just incredible,

I mean, to meet someone who not only
experienced it first-hand

but came back, was given
five years to live.

I-I really can't even imagine
what he went through.

It was just a duty of humanity.

So, what he did with arguably for
all of us, really,

to help contain it and that's what
the liquidator's did

and they are the unsung heroes
of this whole sorry story.

Cleared by the liquidators
as best they could,

deep in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

it's still referred to
as a toxic dead zone.

But just how true is that?
Tomorrow I'm going somewhere

that might well turn
everything on its head.

Could people actually
still be living here?

DOG BARKS

My Exclusion Zone lodgings
are in the tiny town of Chernobyl,

after which the power plant
itself was named.

Still inside The Zone, it was also
evacuated but, being 14km away,

didn't suffer the total abandonment
seen in Pripyat.

It has a very strange feel here.

It feels like we're the only
people here.

Showing me around
is Kate Goncharenko,

whose father and grandparents
were forcibly relocated

after the accident.

This looks like it's a working
building over here.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. This is the
post office, of Chernobyl town.

And, generally, the one post office
for the whole area.

And above the window
you can see the screen.

Usually, when we see such a screen
in a post office, we expect to see

the time there but as long as we're
in the Exclusion Zone

we see the level of radiation

in the different parts
of the Exclusion Zone.

That's kind of mad.

So, basically, what my little
dosimeter is doing here... Yeah.

..that's telling me every single
part and region

of the entire Exclusion Zone.
Exactly, you're getting it right.

No-one is allowed to stay here
for more than two weeks at a time,

but there is a local shop.

This is a proper supermarket.
Hello. Hello.

You've got everything you can need -
knives, biscuits, a lot of alcohol.

Yeah.

Do you just come here
for two weeks at a time?

How do you feel working here?

I think I'm going to get myself
a little something sweet.

Do you fancy anything, Kate?
I guess one of this. Yeah. Yeah.

I love that she's using an abacus.
Yeah.

Like stepping back in time.

26. Thank you.

Thank you so much, bye-bye.
Bye-bye.

It's against the law
to live inside The Zone

but Kate is taking me to the
crumbling outskirts of Chernobyl

to meet one woman who is defying
the authorities.

Look at all these derelict
houses here.

This is the house of Valentina,
one of the re-settlers,

the people who came back and
continued living in their homes.

Let's go.

Oh, look she's got a cat. Yeah.

I didn't really that there were
re-settlers, as in people

who moved back here permanently.

Still feels like this is
a dead zone.

You know, the fact that I'm walking
around with this,

monitoring the amount of
radioactivity that I'm absorbing,

but Valentina lives here.

It's kind of quite a lot to
get your head around.

Shall we? Yes.

Thank you very much for letting me
come into your house.

Valentina moved back to The Zone
soon after the disaster.

Her late husband found work
here as a liquidator.

Hello, little dog.
Who ate all the pies?

Valentina, what is your dog called?

Dana. I can't quite work it out.

It's like a Chihuahua-Corgi cross.

There's lots of bottles of water.
Do you drink from the tap?

Valentina does have electricity and
friends bring food in from outside

but it's a humble existence.

So, Valentina, why did you choose

to return to a place so close
to Chernobyl Power Station?

Does it ever feel sad here
or lonely here?

Will you ever leave here?

Around 200 re-settlers
still live in The Zone,

one of the most toxic places
on Earth.

Already they've lived longer
on average

than those who never returned.

She also offers us some vodka.

When in Ukraine, I feel
I must take a bit of vodka.

These labels look a little
bit scary.

Isn't that for electricity?
Electricity, yeah.

VOICEOVER: I think Valentina is keen
to show me that there can be

a kind of normality here.

Is this Ukrainian hospitality?
Exactly.

My goodness. That's quite a lot.
Is she trying to get me drunk?

Exactly. Thank you very much.
How do we say cheers in Ukrainian?

Budmo. Budmo. OK.

Whoa.

Wow. You should eat something.
Oh, should I eat something as well?

Yeah. I think I need to.
That was quite strong.

Thank you.

Valentina has one more
treat for me...

Is this the entertainment?

..ably assisted by Dana.

DANA HOWLS REPEATEDLY

DANA HOWLS CONTINUOUSLY, BEN LAUGHS

Valentina, that...

That... I will never forget that.

DANA BARKS

Take Care. Thank you.

That was kind of amazing.

So much love and humour
and humanity and normalness.

And then this, which is kind of what
people expect to see in Chernobyl -

abandonment and derelict buildings.

It's kind of a tale
of two worlds, isn't it?

And it's just completely
unexpected, that.

Because that's such a sign
of kind of hope and beauty

amidst such wretchedness.
Kind of flips it all on its head.

Self-settlers like Valentina show
that life can still exist here,

but I'm learning of a newer
generation who also want to connect

to this strange place.

This evening I'm returning
to the ghost town of Pripyat.

No-one can enter here
without a government permit.

But not everyone heeds the rules.

What I've slowly realised
being here is that

although it is a deserted city,
stuff still happens here,

and police patrols
are one of the realities

because a deserted city attracts
people for the wrong reason.

And I'm curious to find out what
sort of people do come here and why.

Ukrainian police carry out
24-hour surveillance of Pripyat.

Officer Mykhailo Kuzmenko
and his team are on the night shift.

What kind of things
do people get up to here?

The illegal trespassers
are known as stalkers.

They operate in groups,

creating makeshift living quarters
inside buildings...

..and even sleeping there.

Stalkers seek out the most dangerous
and inaccessible places...

..to get their thrills.

The dangers are clearly massive.

RAPID BEEPING

Tonight, Mykhailo's team believe
some have been staying in

a high-rise on the outskirts
of the city.

Going in.

This is so strange.

Kind of going from apartment to
apartment...looking for people.

People have been graffitiing here.

They're pretty certain
that there is someone around.

There's fresh footprints,

fresh signs of people being here.

Look.

So someone's been staying in here?

This is the Chernobyl squatter.

Who'd have thought?

It's a side to Chernobyl
I never even considered,

that people would be attracted here
for the thrill of staying over.

I mean, pretty astonishing views.
I'm drawn to the window. Wow.

There's a little sledge there.

Very easy to face of the facts

that it was once
a thriving block of flats.

Oh, yeah, look.

So this is pretty strange.
I can't quite make heads nor tails.

I don't think any books or anything
were left in this building,

everything was kind of taken, so
it's almost like they've created

this little thing.
It's got the original Soviet flag,

it's got a map of Pripyat.

This is the social media affect.

It's even reached Chernobyl.

Because people want to come here,
they want to make videos,

they want to show off, they want to,
erm, create dangerous stunts

and, actually, this is sort of
their playground.

That's a post-disaster effect
nowadays.

The problem is so widespread, it's
common for the police to arrest

at least one stalker
on every patrol.

If they get caught,
do they get arrested?

Darkness has set in and it has
a whole different feel now.

It's getting late,
and with no arrests tonight,

the police head off to patrol
other parts of The Zone.

I think it's fair to say
that's the strangest,

most surreal night patrol
I've ever been on.

It's just a whole other face
to Chernobyl.

The stalkers might have eluded us
tonight,

but we have another plan
to track them down.

Nikolai, my minder,
reckons that tomorrow morning

we'll definitely snare us
our stalker.

I'm spending a week inside
the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone,

a toxic wasteland
that I've discovered is now

a major attraction for illegal
sightseers and thrill-seekers.

I want to understand why these
so-called stalkers come here

and what Chernobyl means to the
generation who weren't around

at the time of the accident.

Nikolai has managed to track down
a stalker through social media

and he's willing to talk to me.

He's there. Down here somewhere?
Yes, on his way back from The Zone.

Stalkers enter The Zone illegally

so we're meeting
just outside the border.

Apparently they're on their way
back from Pripyat

so they well might have been there
when I was there.

Hey, he's over there. Hey.

No, no, we're good. OK.

How long were you in Pripyat for?
Four days. Four days?

And when you're in Pripyat,
where where do you stay?

In my apartment. Your...? Yes,
I can show you my videos from there.

This is my house, where we live.

Good morning.

How did you get in?
Illegally way.

From the perimeter fence,
it's around 30km to Pripyat.

The Zone is a vast wilderness.

To avoid the police, stalkers must
trek through toxic forests

and cross ice-cold rivers.

So, crossing the river in your
pants, it's got to be cold.

Argh!

The water was this deep.

With this backpack, I turn in my
hands, and go across this river.

You don't understand how it's cold.

Argh!

Why do you do it? For me it is
just like a new adventure

and every time it is very different.

For example,
I find police and run away.

Second time I meet many stalkers
also illegally.

It's like adventure
and shock for me.

Reaching Pripyat is
the stalker's Holy Grail...

..a place where they can share
their extreme thrill-seeking

on social media.

The dangers of this illegal trespass
are clear.

That must be scary up there.
Wow. Look at that.

Do you not worry about radiation?

I know where it's dangerous

and it's, like four days radiation
not kill you, so why not?

See you.

Fascinating, that.

Here, I suppose, is in modern
Ukrainian youth who's embracing

2020, 2021, and social media

and making videos
and keeping stories alive.

It's a form of history telling,
isn't it? Really.

It's the new world
meeting the old world.

It's kind of cool

and weird and...unexpected.

I'm back inside The Zone.

Its size still astounds me.

1,000 square miles of crumbling
villages, toxic forests

and abandoned farmland.

But when the eyes
of the world turned to Chernobyl

they found far more here
than just a ruined nuclear plant.

In a remote part of The Zone,
Nikolai has special knowledge

of something that was once
classified at the highest level.

We are off to see something secret,
remains of the Cold War.

It's truly amazing.

I'm going to a site that, at the
time of the Chernobyl disaster,

was marked on Soviet maps
as a children's camp.

Wow.

It had quite a climbing frame.

You guys don't do things by halves.

This is an amazing feat
of Soviet engineering.

The scale of this place.
I feel dwarfed by it.

It's like a 50-storey building.

So what exactly is this?

During the Cold War, this was
able to detect incoming missiles

in case of a nuclear strike.

Purpose of this was to give
a seven-minute warning

to the Soviet authorities.

And this was a technology available
only in Soviet Union.

So Americans didn't have
anything like this.

The huge radar receiver
was built around the same time

as the power plant,

helping to conceal from the
Americans the 14,000 tonnes of steel

that needed to be brought
on site for its construction.

It stands 150 metres high
and nearly a kilometre wide.

So how did this actually work?
Radio waves?

Yes, and the radio geeks in the
'80s, with their radio scanners,

could hear a sound
of the radar station.

MECHANICAL CLICKING

Some people were calling it
a Russian woodpecker

because it sounded
a bit like woodpecker

and it was clearly
coming from Russia,

so that's why Russian woodpecker.

If you were picking that up,
if you were a ham radio operator

in America, I can see how you'd
start thinking, "What is this?"

Did the Americans know about this?
When did they first see it?

After the meltdown.

When all the spy satellites
had turned their eyes here,

they suddenly discovered
this massive frame

in the middle of nowhere.

That was quite a surprise.

Because of its size and weird look
there are many conspiracy theories,

so some people believe that
this was a mind controller,

like a brain scorcher of the
Soviet Union that was operating

radio waves to control
and change human behaviour.

I'm trying to imagine the people who
thought it could control your mind.

I feel I need a vodka now. You do.
Has it affected me?

THEY LAUGH

We're 100% sure
it's not operating now

and we can sleep tight tonight.
We are not zombies yet.

The radar network
is another example of the Soviets

looking the wrong way.

While they scanned the horizon
for the incoming threat,

it was actually the failure of
their own nuclear technology nearby

that ultimately led to
the disaster they all feared.

Now, there's just one
truly extraordinary place

I'm yet to visit.

Somewhere that very few will
ever get the opportunity to see.

Tomorrow I'm going directly beneath
the vast Chernobyl Radiation Shield,

getting as close as is possible

to get to the very epicentre
of the explosion.

I'm returning to the Chernobyl
Power Plant to gain access

to something off limits
to almost all outsiders.

Deep inside the enormous steel arch,

known as the New Safe Confinement,
is the entombed remains

of the ruined reactor itself,
the very epicentre of the explosion.

After months of discussions

I've been granted
just a few minutes inside.

This is pretty special to be
allowed to go into there.

That's why there's lots of people
keeping an eye on me,

lots of paperwork, it's taken a long
time to get these permissions.

Directly underneath the arch,

radiation levels are even higher
than Control Room Number 4.

It's kind of like going to war.

I think we're about to head into
the final area.

Wow. Oh, my goodness.

This... This is unbelievable.
I mean, I can't...

I can't quite believe
I'm actually in here.

Behind the scaffold is the crumbling
concrete sarcophagus

that was hastily erected
to entomb the blown apart reactor.

If you can hear that beeping,
that was everyone's dosimeters

from outside going off,
cos it's off the scale in here.

We're up to 85, almost 90.

Over time and exposed to the
elements, the concrete sarcophagus

has deteriorated
and is teetering on collapse.

The entire structure will be
painstakingly disassembled,

its still hot
radioactive core removed

and placed in special storage
facilities.

So when the workers eventually
start to dismantle this,

how long can each worker
spend doing their job?

It will all be robotics? Yeah.

Very slowly
everything will be picked apart.

This is modern day liquidators.
This is history repeating itself.

All those men that were sweeping
the debris off the roof,

it's going to happen again.

Spearheaded by the European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development,

over 40 countries came together
to fund the £1.3 billion arch.

For at least the next century,

this extraordinary feat of
mega engineering will protect

and enable the radioactive ruins
of reactor 4

to eventually be made safe.

Trying to explain to you now
my emotions, it's really weird,

because I feel
surprisingly emotional

to see what is arguably

a wretched, terrible place.

But what I see
coming in here is hope

and that's what I love cos this is
the hope of what technology can do.

This is the hope of what people
collaborating, multi nations came

together to create this dome and
protect it for another 100 years

and isn't that incredible that over
the next couple of decades, robots,

you know, AI, artificial
intelligence, that so many people

think could ruin the world,

could actually help save it
and preserve it.

So my emotions right now are
of great pride for this country,

for everyone who worked on it

and showing what humanity can do.

BEEPING

Got about 30 seconds left in here.

You can hear everyone's
dosimeters going off.

Whoo, gosh.
Chris, we have to get out.

Chris, we've gotta go. Yeah.

Our time is up.

Everything is checked for
contamination but we're all clear.

The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is
still a long way from being a safe,

habitable environment but slowly
green shoots are emerging.

The wider Zone itself has become
a giant laboratory

where scientists and
conservationists can now

safely study the effects
of radiation and what happens

to nature when humans disappear.

What is this we're going into now?

Biologist Marina Shkvyria has been
studying wildlife in The Zone.

So, all of this here has grown
since this was all abandoned?

What's interesting is
when I look at my dosimeter,

it's a little bit higher in here,
perhaps, and I know that

if I go down towards the moss,

it goes up quite a lot and yet
nature has flourished here.

Marina and other scientists
believe that without hunting,

farming and the destruction
of natural habitats,

The Zone is becoming
an unlikely wildlife sanctuary.

We're tracking wolves.

Have you found anything, Marina?

Yeah. You can see tracks, yeah?

This one? Oh, yes, I've got it.

How many wolves do you think
have come through here?

There are plenty of wolf tracks but
in an area the size of Luxembourg,

seeing them was always going to be
a long shot.

Luckily, Marina and her team have
caught glimpses of the wildlife

that live in The Zone
on remote cameras.

So, this is from a drone?

That's a beautiful shot.
Wow, look at that,

galloping off across the landscape.

How beautiful is that?

Marina, how did these horses
get here in the first place?

Were they introduced?

And wolves!
Look at that. Incredible.

Just amazing to see the array
of animals on those camera traps.

Moose, deer, wolves, lynx.

There's even bears.

So many animals living in this
extraordinary Exclusion Zone.

The planet faces
unprecedented challenges -

many of them, like Chernobyl,
of our own making.

I came here looking for hope.

What I've discovered here
in Chernobyl is that this is

supposed to be a radioactive
wasteland for tens,

maybe hundreds
of thousands of years...

..and yet nature's reclaiming it.

I mean, look at this.

This, for me, is really exciting
part of the Chernobyl story

cos it's the accidental hope
that came from it.

Some people are calling this
the European Amazon.

This is almost the greatest,
accidental rewilding project

in the world because where there was
wretchedness and disaster

has come this extraordinary
return to the wild.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media