Back from Chernobyl

I just returned from a week-plus vacation to Ukraine, where I spent three days in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone with three of the best folks one could ever hope to get stranded with in a radiological wasteland: Mike Coffey, Chad Treloar, and Edward Geist.  We spelunked through pitch-black hospital basements in Pripyat amidst firefighters’ clothing emitting a quarter of a roentgen per hour of gamma radiation.  We toured parts of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.  We ate good food, pondered the relics of late Soviet society left behind in schools and civic centers, and just had a roaring good time.  The Geiger counters had a “roaring” good time also.  I’ll be posting photos and videos on our travelog at www.kiev2010.com, so please follow our efforts there.  Also, please visit the personal blogs of my companions:

Edward Geist: sovietologist.blogspot.com

Chad Treloar: cwtreloar.blogspot.com

Mike Coffey isn’t as into personal bloggery as the other three of us, but we’re indebted to him for running the group travelog.