The exclusion zone around it is usually deserted, but today some people returned, as they do once a year, to visit the graves of their families. Fifteen years ago, some of the locals had to be evacuated at gunpoint. The last functioning bloc has been closed but the problems remain. The area is still dangerously contaminated and even worse, the sarcophagus around Block Four is cracked and leaking. Experts say that it could collapse at any time and there is no money for urgent repairs.
Birds fly in and out of the holes.
Parts of Belarus actually suffered the most from radiation contamination. Some years ago, the Belarus authorities noted that some of the old folk were coming back to their homes, despite the dangers of radiation. Memorial services took place in the Ukraine and at the Mitinskoe Cemetery in Moscow where lead coffins contain the twenty-nine firemen who came to put out the fire in Block Four. Their bodies are still considered too radioactive to be removed and sent home. In a small village in the Bryansk Region of Russia, the locals were sceptical.