VOA慢速英语2019 HBO的《切尔诺贝利》吸引游客前往核灾难现场

HBO’s ‘Chernobyl’ Drives Rise in Visitors to Nuclear Disaster Site

The success of an American television show about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster has led to a sharp increase in people seeking to visit the area.

The HBO miniseries “Chernobyl” examines the 1986 accident that took place at a nuclear plant in the town of Chernobyl, in the former Soviet¹ republic of Ukraine.

Chernobyl was the world’s worst nuclear accident. A reactor² at the plant exploded and caught fire, sending huge amounts of radiation into the air.

The accident killed 31 people immediately and forced tens of thousands to flee. But Soviet officials decided³ not to order an evacuation of the surrounding areas until 36 hours after the accident.

The final number of those killed by radiation-related illnesses such as cancer is still debated.

Today, the plant’s surroundings feel almost post-apocalyptic⁴. Homeless dogs search the area for food. Plant life has taken hold around windowless, empty buildings that are covered with debris⁵.

But the poor conditions in Chernobyl have not stopped people from wanting to see the disaster remains⁶ for themselves.

One Chernobyl tour operator has reported a 40-percent rise in trip requests since the HBO series began in May. English-language tours in the area usually cost about $100 per person.

Sergiy Ivanchuk is director of SoloEast tours. He told Reuters his company saw a 30-percent increase in tourists wanting to visit the area in May 2019 compared with May 2018. And visitor requests to Chernobyl for the months of June, July and August rose about 40 percent since the release of the HBO show, Ivanchuk said.

Yaroslav Yemelianenko, director of Chernobyl Tour, said he is also expecting an increase of 30 to 40 percent because of the show. His company offers a special tour of places shown in the series. This includes the place where local officials decided not to order people to leave the area right after the explosion.

Some visitors choose to take day trips into Chernobyl from the city of Kiev, 120 kilometers away. The visitors have the chance to see structures that honor victims of the tragedy. They go by vehicle through empty villages and get the change to have lunch at the only operating restaurant in Chernobyl. Visitors can even go see the exploded reactor number four, which sits underneath⁷ a 105-meter-high metal cover.

“Many people come here, they ask a lot of questions about the TV show, about all the events,” tour guide Viktoria Brozhko told Reuters. “People are getting more and more curious.”

Brozhko said she believes the area is safe for people to visit. “During the entire visit to the Chernobyl exclusion⁸ zone, you get around two microsieverts, which is equal to the amount of radiation you’d get staying at home for 24 hours,” she said.

Craig Mazin is the creator of the ‘Chernobyl’ miniseries. He says his first visit to the area was a moving experience. “I’m not a religious man, but that’s as religious as I’ll ever feel,” he said on an HBO podcast. “To walk where [the victims] walked felt so strange, and also being under that same piece of sky, you start to feel a little closer, in a sense, to who they were,” Mazin added.

I’m Bryan Lynn.

Words in This Story

apocalyptic – adj. showing or describing the destruction of the world

tour – n. a visit to and around a place, area or country

curious – adj. wanting to know or learn about something

exclusion – n. a situation in which someone is not permitted to enter a place

podcast – n. a recorded show that can be listened to on a computer or digital device

1 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

2 reactor   

n.反应器；反应堆

参考例句：

• The atomic reactor generates enormous amounts of thermal energy.原子反应堆发出大量的热能。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules.在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 apocalyptic   

adj.预示灾祸的，启示的

参考例句：

• The air is chill and stagnant,the language apocalyptic.空气寒冷而污浊，语言则是《启示录》式的。
• Parts of the ocean there look just absolutely apocalyptic.海洋的很多区域看上去完全像是世界末日。

5 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

7 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

8 exclusion   

n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行

参考例句：

• Don't revise a few topics to the exclusion of all others.不要修改少数论题以致排除所有其他的。
• He plays golf to the exclusion of all other sports.他专打高尔夫球，其他运动一概不参加。