Radioactive Detectives: Lost Places (1/2) | Full Documentary

Chernobyl this name stands for one of the most horrible catastrophes caused by mankind the ukrainian radiation detective the afghan-owned Genco is as familiar with the zone around the deathly nuclear reactor like no one else [Music] during his expedition to the damaged Fukushima reactor he made discoveries he would not have imagined to be possible today can he help to protect people against invisible dangers it's a really contaminated area [Music] [Music] [Music] atomic accidents and their consequences endanger people for thousands of years to come the impact affects whole continents [Music] are we powerless against this hazard [Music] that girl's clueless yes this is my life I spend more time in the zone than in my apartment in Kiev and in a sense this place is a kind of home fulfilled on the way through the exclusion zone around Chernobyl the small village of Apache is situated about 15 kilometers away from the damaged reactor [Music] Yevgeniy on your ankle again visits hana tsavorite Nia whom he lovingly calls Baba Hana she has been living here in her own house since 1986 the old woman is one of approximately 2000 returnees of which only about 200 still live in the zone today I am 79 years old and my sister here is 74 she's been handicapped since childhood the two women live almost completely autonomously cut off from civilization what kind of fish is this pike I wanted to boil it but I'm frying it now did you catch it yourself no it was given to me my neighbor brings me fish from time to time me and my husband were assigned an apartment in another village after the first winter we left everything there behind and came back here when you came back did they try to chase you away they came and tried to persuade me but I told them you will bury me here and then you can relocate me father hernia they come to you to take measurements do they also take samples yes they do drop by I gave them my cabbage carrots and eggs they also wanted to check the milk but I don't have a cow anymore and what did they say nothing they take the goods with them and drive away no one tells us anything if they could at least come and say there is radiation here and there is none there this is my homeland could you replace your mother by someone else no it's the same with your homeland that's why I came back here again radiation I can't see it I don't have teeth so I can't chew em you got - article those who have moved away it would have been better if they'd stayed here because over there it's a kind of foreign homeland with his work the Afghan helps the people living in the zone he measures the radiation levels and sometimes also has surprising results absolute honor Marlon gamma form here the radiation levels are normal they are actually higher in my apartment in Kyiv so Sir Thomas the reason for this is that after the disaster no long-lived isotopes were deposited here would you regularly do it slowly sometimes during those days the wind blew from northerly and westerly directions not placing this area would be suitable for living and farming today Daphna lavanya lavanya Cisco's Podesta each year there are fewer and fewer remaining the zone has been abandoned to name [Music] the Achuar spooky I feel the quietness the tranquility child I see how time passes and everything changes he lasts Macavity nature as a bluest national this is a completely normal process some villages have been reoccupied some abandoned include the sea let's see kiss mister I can understand that this was an enormous tragedy for those living here the people had to leave everything behind had to change their lives completely and that was not always a turn for the better after all it wasn't as if they wanted what general is motion your perky notice in his cell amidst the Ukraine on the border with Belarus is the Chernobyl exclusion zone 16 thousand square kilometers which today may still be entered only with special permission [Music] Kiev the Ukrainian capital here almost no one is interested in remembering the horror of those times but the government also wants to bury the past [Music] buildings are being newly constructed and renovated most of the younger generation don't know anything about the word chair noble life those are people are getting married and enjoying life [Music] yes Jen is a young critical journalist and has been a radiation detective for more than 10 years at first it was just a matter of journalistic curiosity which drew him to the exclusion zone of Chernobyl since his first visit he has already spent three years in the zone Luthor is indisposed or Hoopoe summer 1986 was different there were many new and unfamiliar things it was just different to before the accident no one was able to imagine what kind of horrible things could happen in a nuclear power station directly after the accident a strange mood prevailed in case there were army transporters everywhere taking equipment Northeast's and then we all realized that that was where this ominous reactor must be located symbol doesn't see Gotham was sure there was another very interesting situation Kiev became a town without children and everyday trucks with water tanks sprayed the streets to wash them down the streets were always wet and in the end she noble has fundamentally changed the people's opinion regarding mass media and politics believe the key [Music] 530 square kilometers of contaminated area 13,000 abandoned apartments 50,000 evacuated people privet once a proud and beautiful city today a perilously contaminated area the catastrophe of Chernobyl began in the ninth from the 25th to the 26th of April 1986 the Soviet leadership mobilized hundreds of thousands of soldiers as well as all available specialists throughout the USSR a total of 800,000 people helped in the fight against the explosion and its consequences within a few days all the residents were evacuated from the 30 kilometer zone around the reactor until completion of the evacuation another quarter million people were displaced the people then did not know that they would never be able to return a deserted ghost zone remained this is la bullish she thought on the 26th of April six weddings were still celebrated here the children participated in outdoor activities however on the 27th the children were sent home from school after the second class and we were told the town would be evacuated for only three days [Music] at that time I still hoped that we would be able to return I wanted to stay in the town my daughter was born here I was married here I thought this would be my new home but unfortunately this was not possible right here on the 13th of November 1983 my daughter Irina was born therefore this is a very special place for me the hospital in Pripyat will collapse very soon like so many other buildings in the city the lifetime of the town is slowly coming to an end for a long time many were unable to accept that creep it was lost revenue poster by yourself is not this was the reason why until 2000 they tried to keep the town in the good state of repair the caucus [Music] the town is a huge memorial for one a single day it is dying could this tragedy have been prevented did the people give up the fight against radiation too soon [Music] approximately four kilometers from the reactor directly beside the road mounds with danger signs the village of cappucci the authorities decided that the whole village should be buried the hope the radiation would be curtailed by the layers of earth the Ukrainian ecologists Alexei vet Mitsuki refers to the special expertise of EF Ken for his world we'll take it we're standing here on the site of a village mysterious new bin about 1,000 people lived here you can look around and see these mounds with the radiation danger zone in the despair was mikazuchi these are single buried houses what happen is Napoleon sir oh the company would be with you Missy the radiation particles all those small fuel particles which were released from the reactor they're spread everywhere here naturally they have been more or less cemented to the environment over the past 25 years and are now in a solid state nevertheless they are dangerous to make the whole area safe again the entire ground ought to be cleared and dumped in a well isolated nuclear waste dump however considering the extent of the area effect this is a hopeless undertake English the prison radiation distributed uniformly or rather selectively it's not as its described in many textbooks that there is a center and then radiation spreads outwards in concentric circles if I've kilometres own 10 kilometers 20 kilometers 30 kilometers months after the catastrophe the outline of the exclusion zone was determined anew and a circular area became the shape known today unfortunately radiation does not obey geometrical laws an abandoned village like many others in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl the houses still remain as they were left in 1986 no one has returned here since then [Music] hello America we are here on the left side of the river prepared in the southern part of the zone it's said to have pins this area is so to speak clayji the higher radiation shortly after the accident was caused by the high concentration of the short-lived isotopes iodine-131 from this point of view agenda the evacuation at that time was necessary the people were driven from their homes above all so as not to endanger their health as a general chatter snake after a month or two many of them were able to return news report new tenancy territory the people were expelled from their homes above all not to endanger their health many of them were able to build a new life in a safe environment yep Ken's research in the zone also considers the so called hotspots accumulation of highly radioactive particles for this he enters the area of the reactors five and six the dangerously high radiation does not permit a long stay in part the measured data are 600 times above normal radiation everything here should be stored in a cast or container Afghan has great respect for radiation he knows to limit the length of stay in this highly contaminated area is the best protection and it's as important to observe a longer break after each stay so that the body can recover from exposure to radiation [Music] [Music] in the acanthus nationalism is someone who has never been here probably imagines this place as a huge deserted territory in fact about 3,000 people work here in the zone not counting the many specialists still working in the power plant to deliver to it must dancing many employees to protect the people outside the zone from it's dangerous content every visitor and every vehicle and its occupants are examined for radiation nothing here must leave this zone there are 14 checkpoints within the exclusion zone these days today it is common knowledge that the authorities knowingly falsified the critical values for radiation exposure and played them down to find out more the F Ken meets the former firefighter Pavlo near Tulsa the last time Pablo saw the area was when he helped to extinguish the fire in the reactor the men had to spend the nights in the primary school here [Music] not only in the zone but also outside water was the main weapon against radiation that way dangerous radioactive Lee exposed particles would not mix with dust and rise in the dry weather this place has changed so much that it's almost unrecognizable nevertheless I recognize the school in those days you had a clear view to the street now everything is overgrown here those memories are still present for the firefighter the men were not aware at the time that they didn't really have a chance to save anything this school we've just decontaminated it with water over and over again the radiation is still there have you been successful yes of course we measured the difference in the school and outside inside the values are only one-tenth as high as outside really quite a lot of people who came here as volunteers to help with the cleaning up not only people from Kyiv or the Ukraine helped there were people from all parts of the USSR during the whole time working in the zone during that period I allegedly was exposed to just 18 runs um not such have you ever been able to obtain the real values [Music] Pavlo tells you again about the constant headache he is suffering from since his mission in the chernobyl zone however these effects are quite harmless compared to those of his colleagues many of whom have died in the meantime the authorities decided over the health of the liquidators then [Music] the Chernobyl catastrophe was an unprecedented challenge for mankind even years later nobody could imagine that a similar accident could happen nevertheless it happened again in a country 8,000 kilometers away another nuclear reactor exploded in the middle of a densely populated area which also has become non inhabitable now EF can prepare as his trip to Japan he considers the media coverage about the catastrophe of Fukushima as superficial and fragmentary the Chairman of course it is fascinating for me to see how the Japanese deal with this problem especially in the light of the experience the world gained in Chernobyl was really cool was that the we can say that at that time we neither knew what needed to be done nor how to do it was now the tooten is now reported thus Genova became a testing ground where the most varied experiences have been gathered evacuation decontamination resettlement all of these tasks affected hundreds of thousands of people here have these experiences been put into use in Japan [Music] on March 11th 2011 Japan was rocked by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake only a few hours later huge tsunamis hit the coast and triggered the catastrophe of Fukushima several months later Japanese newspapers reported optimistically that the consequences had been for the most part dealt with and that Japanese life had returned to normal [Music] directly after he heard about the disaster in Fukushima he f Ken offered his help to the Japanese power plant operator TEPCO they declined it and said they didn't need help from outside the situation was under control the Japanese journalists Kenzo a shamoto heard about jeff ken and his work and asked him to come to japan to offer his expertise kenza was born in the Fukushima Prefecture and is very worried about the future of the people in his native region the headquarters of the power plant operator TEPCO today as has often happened in recent months there is a demonstration here this time it has been organized by the organization women of Fukushima who want to enter into a dialogue with the responsible people in the group company the fronts are visibly hardened the managers of the company on one side the emotionally much shaken victims on the other the nerves are on edge the people expect signals why did you come to Fukushima before the catastrophe and now you don't come to us anymore why don't you come here and apologize to every individual person why don't you come to Fukushima when will you come when will you come to us we are waiting for you as always their question won't be answered this time either the region around the town of Minami Souma only about 20 kilometers away from the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi power plant [Music] in order to get a first view of the radioactive contamination yevgen'yevich on council of Turkana the men tell him that as of today the Japanese government has not carried out any radiation survey of the region the inhabitants have now started their own survey with the help of independent organizations [Music] we collect data everywhere in the region and drive on planned routes to collect it we then collect as much data as possible in our headquarters evaluated and draw up reliable radiation maps in Tokyo yep Ken is satisfied with the equipment being used but have the collected data always been determined exactly according to their relevance and have the Japanese authorities determine the correct exclusion zone a little further north in the mountains [Music] here nature seems completely intact no signs of high radiation values [Music] the first big surprise is a completely unguarded borderline [Music] Yevgeniy once to carry out his first measurement here he has to tell Kenzo that the radiation level exceeds the natural radiation 100 times or [Music] - hydrated or if the radiation is that high the authorities should extend the border line even further I don't know how exactly the survey has been made this seems very strange to me the men are worried can this place be decontaminated I don't think that it will ever be possible to decontaminate this region here the area is much too extensive and too hilly first on their way along the zone EF Ken and Kenzo see a border crossing here you can only pass with the respective permit Yevgeniy is surprised that contrary to chernobyl no vehicle is checked for radioactive particles [Music] 45 kilometers from the reactor according to official information these rice fields are not in an endangered area Kenzo doesn't trust the authorities and wants to find out the truth with the Afghan naturally everything growing here will absorb radioactive nuclides like cesium and strontium it would be very dangerous to eat plants from this region the Afghans radiometer proves the extremely high radiation of the ground the general critical limit is exceeded Sevenfold determining a nuclear catastrophe area as a circle does not correspond to the real distribution of radiation here in Japan as well as in Chernobyl therefore precise surveys also outside the primary circle zone are so important [Music] on their way through the southern area of the Fukushima region Jeff Ken and Kenzo meet some men clearing a pavement voluntary help groups form everywhere in the region since the government or TEPCO have not initiated even the simplest decontamination measures these are just ordinary citizens who have organized themselves to make the way to school safer for their children [Music] further along at the borderline to the exclusion zone a provisional settlement of mobile homes many evacuees from the 10 kilometer zone still have to live like that a vegetable dealer comes every day and provides the people with fresh food he cannot sell the products from the Fukushima region anymore his complete stock comes from faraway regions 10,000 people live in this settlement alone there is electricity sewage water and satellite TV TEPCO covers the cost but for how long space in these emergency accommodations is much sought after and is raffled since there are more needy than apartments [Music] [Music] the vegetable farmer Shinichiro Araku invites EF Ken to his new home he and his wife got the desired container in the second raffle they have been living here for months their future is still uncertain because there were no emergency measures there were catastrophe drills but not for such an emergency they just said we should vanish but where to how should we know where to go now and so if this were a natural catastrophe everybody would understand in that case everybody must sort things out for themselves but in the case of such an accident it's a completely different matter so no doesn't do you buy another chain was it the coast near the town of Eva key the effects of the tsunami are still clearly visible the gigantic wave has just flushed houses away and with the houses life has gone [Music] the cleanup efforts will still take many months the people have gone [Music] a bouquet of flowers for a loved one is he dead or has he just lost his home [Music] the harbor of the small fishing village of Hassan Ohama 33 kilometers to the south of the plant [Music] the fishermen don't have jobs today their boats are tied up in the harbor like shirasu GU another's boat [Music] mmm Sookie I go out several times a week and take different samples and higher water samples yes mud samples and also fish at the moment octopus and flatfish that means you're allowed to fish yes but only samples I take them to the laboratory they're certainly not for eating what sort of people come to measure the radioactivity we bring the fish samples to the lab and there they're passed on to the people who'll examine them the ocean contains an enormous amount of water considering the amount of radiation which got into the ocean it will be distributed evenly after some time thus the concentration will fall to a minimum level it will almost certainly be possible to resume fishing after a while I'm quite confident for the Fisher love you being with my mother my energy I thought my oh my in the mornings the first thing I saw was the sea now I live about half an hour from here in a provisional home but when I wake up in the morning I still long for the sea and the ships therefore I come here every day even if there is nothing to do my feet simply carry me here went on here and look around I take some comfort in cold water on a squishy non wonderfully the fishermen still get a small monthly compensation from TEPCO it is however questionable just how long it still will be paid the town of Muharram achi the mayor Yoshinori Suzuki welcomes Ukrainian radiation detective he hopes her honest and independent measurements the state only initiated provisional measurements just some months after the catastrophe but Yoshinori Suzuki does not trust these data in order to make life for the inhabitants of the town safer the mayor has shouldered a lot but the bureaucratic way through the public authorities was way too time-consuming time the people of Muharram achi did not have in March 2011 first of all the most important place in town was decontaminated the primary school here as well volunteers have decontaminated the school building and removed the upper contaminated layer from the sports ground and school yard the state-owned measuring instrument was set up after a decontamination today of course it shows completely normal radiation values [Music] everything needing to be done during the first day is like cleaning the school has been done here this is very important because the children have spent a lot of time here they play and raise dust this place was decontaminated using the simplest means and according to my data it is very clean out on the couch opening it same adventure dusan it's used however the radioactive residue had to be deposited beside the school in a dump covered with earth here we have again gets higher radiation values ah no total Emmy we would like to get rid of the contaminated earth but there's no place where we can bring it so no Boston where name nobody wants to have it done in the hunting the government says they are building a final storage place and until then we have to store it here everybody here already understand seed you know do not be ok [Music] deserted streets closed up houses the little village of e today seems like a ghost town today [Music] at a parking lot f kin and Kenzo meet many men in protective suits they have just returned from a decontamination mission as it turns out they are volunteers as well as of today the Japanese government and TEPCO as well have initiated almost no cleanup efforts at all did you have to do special training we did not get any special training for this work since it is simple and easy to understand that a country like Japan allows untrained volunteers to deal with highly radioactive waste is not comprehensible for F kin on the plastic bag it is more than 25 micro sievert per hour this value corresponds to a two hundred fold raised value of natural radiation no one knows how long these intermediate deposits will exist since the Japanese government has still not created any final disposal for the waste but instead of waiting in vain for the government to take care of things people act on their own initiative out of sheer distress and despair this is the Japanese way to deal with the problem yep Ganon Kenzo make an appointment for a secret meeting with a worker from the plant Kenzo asks him if there is still radiation leaking from the reactors the amount is much lower than right after the catastrophe however a large amount of radiation is still leaking in addition reactors 2 3 & 4 still have to be covered well as Union you walk your song in Chernobyl the situation was under control after six months here nine months have already passed to get things just half way under control why does this take so long this is easy to explain our problem is four times as serious as it was in Chernobyl since here we have four reactors out of control for us it seems as if TEPCO was the problem how do you see this is not the problem the problem is the Japanese government in Chernobyl the Soviet Army was available everything was organized by the army and they took care of things very quickly when the third reactor here exploded the Japanese military were on site in my opinion they were scared out of their wit's and ran off if our army had helped with ten thousand men things will be much better now to Mandakini normal in tuning your news degree the law [Music] a very special reunion the children of the evacuated families meet for the first time after many months at the lake hitori they are happy to see their old school classmates and friends they seem to have forgotten about the bad things [Music] [Applause] [Music] probably none of the children will be able to return to their former homeland what do they know about the danger waiting in their old home the critical value determined by the government was exceeded therefore we cannot go home even if it is only for mathematical reasons and then radiation varies very much depending on the location a substantial amount of radioactive material was deposited in the mountains and the water comes from the mountains that means that you cannot use the water pipes any longer [Music] before saying goodbye some pictures are taken and contact data are exchanged personal bonds are strong in Japan back in Minami Souma this place was not evacuated by force however many left their homes after the catastrophe because they were afraid Sachiko bamba' came back permanently moving from one crowded emergency shelter to another tore at her parents mental stability she clearly remembers the first night of the disaster in the reactor the neighbor came to us in the middle of the night and told us that a friend who worked in the plant had heard about what happened and he said it will get dangerous here we should leave we hadn't noticed anything when I came here shortly after the catastrophe it was deadly silent it was eerie I came here every now and then to look after my cat I had to leave here and later to identify the dead bodies virtually no one was here it was frightening some returned for similar reasons as Sachiko bomba but there were many who could not leave the contaminated areas many children still visit the atubu kindergarten in Minami Souma every day [Music] the head of the kindergarten Yoshiyuki Kondo tries everything possible to ensure that the children are exposed to radiation as little as possible with a small number of volunteers the kindergarten and it's playground could be decontaminated to the greatest possible extent [Music] the kindergarten has been completely decontaminated and we start cleaning the children's houses out together with other volunteers I go out every week and clean these houses we do this on our own account this area was first officially due for cleaning only 18 months after the accident we couldn't wait that long and have therefore decided to proceed on our own account of course we cannot do this without help therefore experienced people and people having the respective skills help Sammy tackle one house after the other even if the children's houses are free of radiation the children are still not safe Yevgeniy measurements confirm his worst fear the radiation level directly at the fence to the kindergarden is an imminent hazard for the children son once or twice here's the cool music this is practically the same situation as in creted there they tried to wash the town clean they washed and washed and eventually managed to achieve a lower radiation however after a while they realized that there was no sense in having a clean town in the middle of a contaminated area after all how were the people supposed to live in your addictiveness a problem you take a toy if you're not in a care we have almost the same situation here's the kindergarten which has been cleaned and successfully decontaminated but go a few metres down the road and the radiation levels are dangerously high especially for children let's be honest how do they expect weddings to work today the children are here and when the kindergarten is over for the day they'll go to play in the neighboring cops runabout on the contaminated streets just Lucas let the get your solution everybody here at this network would say leise logic to be had to put some very help a press conference of the plant operator TEPCO EF Ken and Kenzo want to confront those responsible with their results [Music] in the course of our research we heard from many people that TEPCO provides no information on radiation or decontamination the communities don't get such information do you provide any information at all instead of explaining the decontamination efforts to the inhabitants and evacuees we prefer to provide information on the current situation at the plant and the repair procedures we do this through the responsible persons and the evacuation sites and the self-government districts we don't say please decontaminate this way but provide information on the accident and the repair or we give advice since we are responsible for the problem to the people about their option of selling their plot of land to us back in Tokyo Jeff Kent conclusion is sobering yeah as I see Sydney I have talked to many people during these days I traveled through the contaminated area behind the 20 kilometres or have realized that many people like a lot of important information they simply don't receive it and in my opinion they don't get enough information on the possible effects and risks these are clear facts indicating that the Japanese government and the Department of the Environment ignore facts or even conceal them I cannot believe that the persons in charge in such high positions are not familiar with such basic thing yes now you Hubert Viki was the conchita citizen I would like to conclude this expedition with an optimistic outlook but I cannot find any positive words he was just very true to be honest I am simply as shocked [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: hazards and catastrophes

Views: 110,024

Rating: 4.757576 out of 5

Keywords: Radioactive Detectives science documentary, Radioactive Detectives full documentary, Radioactive Detectives full documentaries, Radioactive Detectives documentary, Radioactive Detectives earth documentary, Radioactive Detectives catastrophe documentary, Radioactive Detectives Documentary, Radioactive Documentary, Radioactive Detectives Ukranian Documentary, Radioactive Detectives Ukraine, Radioactive Detectives Ukraine Documentary, Radioactive Detectives Ukraine Radioactivity

Id: dd0pxYCOh7Y

Length: 51min 35sec (3095 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 15 2017