Tourists who visited the Chernobyl exclusion zone accidentally got inside one of the most radioactive items still there to pose for a photo.
There was a time when tourists could visit the exclusion zone around the condemned nuclear power plant that infamously exploded in 1986.
Of course, that was before Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago and the area became a warzone, into which nobody should really venture unless they absolutely must.
While it’s almost 40 years since the disaster occurred, there’s little chance of people going back to the area in large numbers as it’s still littered with remnants of the disaster and the subsequent response.
The infamous Elephant’s Foot is, of course, still within the ruins of the nuclear power station, while beneath the hospital in Pripyat is the still-radioactive pile of clothes that belonged to the firefighters sent in to tackle the initial blaze.
Other bits of kit are still scattered around the exclusion zone and are radioactive to this day, including a large claw from a digger which was used to clear up radioactive material from the blasted remains of reactor number four.
During a 2019 tour of Pripyat, archaeologist Rob Maxwell took a reading of the radioactive claw with a Geiger counter and found that it was 39.80 microsieverts per hour (uSv/h), making the claw over 100 times more radioactive than the highest standard levels of background radiation.
There’s radiation everywhere you go in the world, but this abandoned claw is many magnitudes over the standard, and as such it’s not such a good idea to get too close.
However, a pair of tourists visiting Chernobyl were pictured getting up close and personal with the claw, even climbing inside and touching the radioactive debris.
As you can imagine, this was a summarily bad idea. While the time they spent exposed to it is likely not enough to have done them lasting harm, it’s a stupendously daft thing to do for a few Instagram likes.
