Kiev / Ukraine & Chernobyl, visit...

[retroborg]

I was invited to visit Kiev in Ukraine for Christmas & New Year's.
However I noticed that the city resides just 90-100km away from the Blast point of Chernobyl (26 April 1986) and that the whole area was soaked with radiation, as well as the Dnieper river passing by the city and the kyivs'ke reservoir (Probably the city's water supply)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Chernobyl_radiation_map_1996.svg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster

So, I'm skeptical / worried of whether I should even visit and consume, water, food there, let alone the dust on my clothes and breath the air there.

Is Odessa (~530km away from Chernobyl) as badly affected as Kiev and safe to visit?

From what I understand the whole country was badly affected by this and probably not safe to stay or live there at all even today!

What are your objective opinions?!

Thanks in advance.

[SLK001]

Only a week? Not to worry. When you get back, you'll only glow for a day or two!

[retroborg]

Apparently the sarcophagus holding the reactor core is on the verge to collapse so there could be radiation leaking from it even today & contaminating even more the surrounding environment and Kiev city it self!
While the corrupt politicians stole the money meant to be used to seal it permanently!

http://news.kievukraine.info/2010/02/chernobyl-leaking-radiation-and-sucking.html

[zzyzzx]

I would not worry about it. That was a long time ago and it's had plenty of time to dilute. People still live closer to it than where you are going and they don't have three eyes yet.

[deadrats]

i would stay as far away as possible from any place that experienced that sort of catastrophe. yes people still live there, but there is ample evidence that there is rampant environmental contamination and there is ample evidence that people have and continue to experience various health problems as a result of exposure to environmental variables.

radioactive isotopes, for the most part, don't decay all that quickly, and even if you're chances are low of getting radiation related sickness (say as low as 1 in 100,000) why risk it? people living in those areas wish they could move away, why would you want to go there?

[lordsmurf]

A lethal dose of radiation is in the range of 3-5 sieverts (300-500 roentgens) when administered within an hour.

Levels on the Chernobyl tour reportedly range from 0.15 to several microsieverts per hour (15 to several hundred microroentgens an hour). A microsievert is one-millionth of a sievert.

Kiev is about 7-15 microroentgens, the same as London or any other large city.

The plane trip to Russia will likely expose you to more radiation, due to the altitude.