Chernobyl - Duga Radar & Kindergarten

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The Wombat

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Report 5 from our epic trip to Chernobyl

A few sites near Pripyat, whilst still in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.
After a long drive down a bumpy track, we spent a hot humid afternoon at the military radar & control station.

The history is interesting: The Duga was a Soviet Union over the horizon radar used an early warning of a nuclear missile attack from the west. A similar radar was built in eastern Siberia. It operated from 1976 to 1989, and was extremely powerful, over 10MW in some cases. The signal appeared without warning, sounding like a sharp repetitive tapping noise, which led it to be nicknamed the ‘Russian woodpecker’. The signal disrupted legitimate broadcast in the west & in the USSR. The signal became such a nuisance, that some amateur radios & televisions began including ‘woodpecker blankers’ in their design. The signal was a source of much speculation, giving rise to theories of Soviet mind control & weather experiments. I had seen photos of it, but seeing it up close is something else. The ominous large command station was a dark and often dangerous building, that had a control station and would have housed banks of computers over several stories. The damp inside offered a welcome relief from the bugs & humidity, but it did mean getting dripped on through insulation & filth.

The Kindergarten was an interesting place to explore. Childrens toys, chalk boards, cots & books hastily abandoned in the wake of the evacuation. Radiaton was low inside the building, but the vegetation outside harboured a few hot spots. Another thought provoking place.




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Control room
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Training room
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KINDERGARTEN
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thanks for looking
 
Last edited:
Nice to see some more of your pics, they are cracking! Planning a trip there next year. Which company did you go with?
 
Shit, they weren't messing about with that array were they, Sound Job, Thanks

Cheers Smiler. It was huge!

Epic indeed.
Nice shots there and top report.
I've yet to get to Chernobyl.

Thanks. Its certainly worth a trip


Nice to see some more of your pics, they are cracking! Planning a trip there next year. Which company did you go with?

Thanks mate :)
We used SoloEast
Can highly recomend. We had a 3 day tour, and 2 days in Kiev. Tour included food & accomodation.
Feel free to PM me if there is anything you would like to know
 
10megawatt radar array? I wouldn't want to be standing near that when it went off! Plenty of radiation there even without the reactor.
 
Amazing place.
Always love seeing pictures from around there.
Definitely on the list of places I'd love to visit.
Maybe at some point.
 

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