Tours of the Chornobyl Zone for residents of the surrounding region.

In the 35 years after the accident, liquidators cleaned up a huge territory. But the information space remained contaminated. The word "Chornobyl" still sounds like something terrifying. This hits residents of neighboring districts hardest: they live as if there were a time bomb next to them. In reality, this is not so at all.

Words and persuasion change little here. The most effective way is to let people visit the Zone themselves. Measure the radiation with a dosimeter with their own hands, see with their own eyes the places of the liquidators' heroism and make sure that spent nuclear fuel is stored safely.

We spent a very long time checking, agreeing and discussing everything. And on the eve of the 35th anniversary of the accident, on the initiative of the Association of Chornobyl Tour Operators and with the support of the Exclusion Zone Agency and the Kyiv Regional State Administration, we finally signed a memorandum on special tours for residents of the adjacent areas.

Buses with specially trained guides took residents of the Ivankiv and Poliske districts and the town of Slavutych into the Zone. First of all teachers, who work with the younger generation: for them the trips were free. Chornobyl, the plant, the Zone's enterprises, Prypiat. Each trip followed Sergii Mirnyi's educational and psychological rehabilitation program, and the guests were accompanied by experts in overcoming the consequences of the accident and by liquidators themselves.

"In a single visit to today's Exclusion Zone, people leave their fears behind, seeing that it has long been, de facto, a Chornobyl zone of revival," Yaroslav Yemelianenko said at the time.