Travel question: How safe is a trip to Chernobyl?

Q My husband has booked a tour of Chernobyl without properly researching how safe it is. I’m worried that tour companies are only interested in making money. How can we be reassured that we don’t get exposed to a high level of radiation? Or that we don’t bring it home with us?

Name withheld

A On 26 April 1986, after a sequence of human errors combined fatally with design flaws, Reactor No 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine exploded catastrophically. Radioactive material covered the surrounding area, with the wind carrying airborne contamination across Europe.

Thirty-three years on, the location for the worst nuclear accident in history has become a tourist attraction, with hundreds of people each day making the trip from Kiev, Ukraine’s capital. The building that once housed Reactor No 4 is now encased in steel and concrete, and contained within a security perimeter.

In my experience the tours are professionally run, with attention paid to safety. At the first checkpoint, your passport is checked and you are issued with a personal “dosimeter” to assess how much exposure to radiation you receive during the day. At several points you undergo a body scan, again to detect unusual levels of radiation.

Unless you do something really silly such as approaching areas you have been told to avoid and which are still highly radioactive, there is no significant risk from radiation.. Like most people on the tour, my reading was about the same as exposure to radiation during a two-hour flight.

But safety is an issue, in the ghost towns and villages are full of hazards. Evidently, UK health and safety standards do not apply to tourist activities in Ukraine. Be prepared for lots of broken glass, trip hazards and unfenced ledges. Long sleeves and trousers, together with closed shoes, are essential.

Some people have expressed concern about the “Disneyfication” of a place of tragedy. But I believe the experience delivers enlightenment rather than entertainment.

Every day our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder