Bennies Blow-out Box Traditional Geocache

Introduction

This cache is placed in Pripyat near the Chernobyl Power plant. The only way to go here is by visiting a Chernobyl tour from Kiev. The cache is located near one of the most famous abandoned places; a fancy fair from 1986 still standing outside in the air. As instructed by your tour guide, you know how to act safely in this area. Please take all care for you health and especially don’t touch the moss. Enjoy this cache on one of the most unique places in the world! Put the cache back at the EXACT same spot, no trading. Thank you.

Pripyat

Pripyat was founded in 1970 to house workers for the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It was officially proclaimed a city in 1979, but was abandoned in 1986 following the Chernobyl disaster. It was the ninth nuclear city ("атомоград" (atomograd) in Russian, literally "atom city") in the Soviet Union at its time. Some facts:

·         Population: 49,400 before the disaster. The average age was about 26 years old. Total living space was 658,700 m²: 13,414 apartments in 160 apartment blocks, 18 halls of residence accommodating up to 7,621 single males or females, and 8 halls of residence for married couples.

·         Education: 15 primary schools for about 5,000 children, 5 secondary schools, 1 professional school.

·         Healthcare: 1 hospital that could accommodate up to 410 patients, and 3 clinics.

·         Trade: 25 stores and malls; 27 cafes, cafeterias and restaurants could serve up to 5,535 customers simultaneously. 10 warehouses could hold 4,430 tons of goods.

·         Culture: 3 facilities: a culture palace, a cinema and a school of arts, with 8 different societies.

·         Sports: 10 gyms, 3 indoor swimming-pools, 10 shooting galleries, 2 stadiums.

·         Recreation: 1 park, 35 playgrounds, 18,136 trees, 249,247 shrubs, 33,000 rose plants.

·         Industry: 4 factories with total annual turnover of 477,000,000 rubles. 1 nuclear power plant.

Chernobyl Disaster

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine). An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, which spread over much of Western Russia and Europe. It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other being the Fukushima disaster).The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles, crippling the Soviet economy.

The disaster began during a systems test on 26 April 1986 at reactor number four of the Chernobyl plant, which is near the town of Pripyat. There was a sudden power output surge, and when an emergency shutdown was attempted, a more extreme spike in power output occurred, which led to a reactor vessel rupture and a series of explosions. These events exposed the graphite moderator of the reactor to air, causing it to ignite. The resulting fire sent a plume of highly radioactive smoke fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area, including Pripyat. The plume drifted over large parts of the western Soviet Union and Europe. From 1986 to 2000, 350,400 people were evacuated and resettled from the most severely contaminated areas of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. According to official post-Soviet data, about 60% of the fallout landed in Belarus.

The accident raised concerns about the safety of the Soviet nuclear power industry, as well as nuclear power in general, slowing its expansion for a number of years and forcing the Soviet government to become less secretive about its procedures.

Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus have been burdened with the continuing and substantial decontamination and health care costs of the Chernobyl accident. Thirty one deaths are directly attributed to the accident, all among the reactor staff and emergency workers. A UNSCEAR report places the total confirmed deaths from radiation at 64 as of 2008. Estimates of the number of deaths potentially resulting from the accident vary enormously: the World Health Organization (WHO) suggest it could reach 4,000;a Greenpeace report puts this figure at 200,000 or more; a Russian publication, Chernobyl, concludes that 985,000 excess deaths occurred between 1986 and 2004 as a result of radioactive contamination.

Small note on cache maintenance: Milyenko kindly assisted to help for local cache maintenance.