Michael Jennings goes to Chernobyl

Another link via Brian Micklethwait, this time to Michael Jennings’ Samizdata post about his trip to Chernobyl.

We were told that we were about to visit the most radioactive place on the whole trip. Geiger counters were brought out, and we watched the numbers double, triple, and quadruple, to a level far higher than we had seen near the reactor itself. Out the window we could see overgrown grass fields. It was clear nobody stopped here for trivial reasons. We drove through. It was clearly not a place for a roadside picnic.

There’s too much to summarise fully – a bit of history, some personal stuff, some cool photos - but it’s a brilliantly written and fascinating account and really well worth the read.

As Jennings says:

The USSR was dark, strange, mysterious, and seemingly eternal.

Much like their abandoned polar nuclear lighthouses.