Then, they pressed a small, gray button and turned a key on

a radioactive nuclear ghost town near Chernobyl is a hot destination

canada goose uk shop Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly cited a Geiger counter reading as 26 sieverts per hour, rather than 26 microsieverts per hour. This version has been updated. canada goose uk shop

By Cheryl L. Reed July 27, 2017

In Ukraine, an overhead look at the nuclear ghost town of Pripyat, which once was earmarked solely for Chernobyl workers. (Olivier Wullen /Alamy Stock Photo)

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Canada Goose Parka I learned this after climbing into a nuclear rocket command silo, 12 floors below ground, and sitting in the same green chair at the same yellow, metal console at which former Soviet officers once presided. Here, they practiced entering secret codes into their gray keyboards, pushing the launch button and turning a key all within seven seconds to fire up to 10 ballistic missiles. The officers never knew what day their practice codes might become real, nor did they know their targets. Canada Goose Parka

uk canada goose outlet This base in Pervomaysk, Ukraine about a four hour drive from Kiev once had 86 intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of destroying cities in Europe and the United States. Though the nuclear warheads have been removed, the command silo with much of its equipment, giant trucks that carried the rockets to the base and an empty silo were preserved so that people could see what had been secretly going on at nuclear missile bases in the former Soviet Union. The museum’s collection includes the R 12/SS 4 Sandal missile similar to those involved in the Cuban missile crisis and the RS 20A/SS 18 Satan, the versions of which had several hundred times canada goose outlet the destructive power of the bomb dropped canada goose deals on Hiroshima. uk canada goose outlet

“This is what the tourists come to see,” said Igor Bodnarchuk, a tour guide for Solo East Travel, a Kiev company that specializes in tours of Soviet ruins. “What else do we have to offer?”

Canada Goose sale Tourists go to Paris to marvel at the majesty of the Eiffel Tower, to Rome to stroll the cobbled streets of the Vatican, to Moscow to behold the magnificent domes of Red Square. And while Ukraine has its own plethora of domed cathedrals, including monasteries with underground caves, thousands of tourists are trekking to canada goose clearance this country for a uniquely Soviet experience. Here, they stand outside an exploded nuclear reactor at Chernobyl and rifle through the remains of a nearby abandoned city Geiger counter in hand. canada goose In Chernobyl’s shadow, they canada goose coats on sale marvel canada goose coats at the giant “Moscow Eye,” an anti ballistic missile detector that rises 50 stories high and looks like a giant roller coaster. Canada Goose sale

canada goose clearance sale Every day, a handful of travel companies ferry mostly foreigners to Chernobyl’s 19 mile “exclusion zone.” In 2016, Solo East Travel hauled 7,500 people there, up from only one trip in 2000. canada goose clearance sale

cheap canada goose uk “It used to be sort of extreme travel,” said Sergei Ivanchuk of Solo East Travel. “You were very brave to go to Chernobyl in 2000. Now, not so much.” cheap canada goose uk

Ivanchuk insists that people who go to Chernobyl are not morbid. “They are intelligent people who want to learn something new, and are often interested in nuclear power,” he said.

Canada Goose Coats On Sale Likewise, people who venture to the missile base at Pervomaysk are interested canada goose store in the Cold War. “It’s a place to remember like the Holocaust about a dangerous time in history and what it means to have nuclear weapons,” he said. Canada Goose Coats On Sale

Earlier this year, Russia deployed a new cruise missile, apparently violating its 1987 arms control treaty with the United States. In light of that event, the Soviet ruins in Ukraine seem all Canada Goose sale the more relevant.

canada goose coats on sale An RS 20A/SS 18 Satan missile is on display at a former Soviet buy canada goose jacket cheap base cheap Canada Goose now a museum in Pervomaysk, Ukraine. (Cheryl L. Reed/For The Washington Post) canada goose coats on sale

buy canada goose jacket The day I visited the former 46th Rocket Division in Pervomaysk, silver engines gleamed in the sunlight as the temperature edged up to 22 degrees. “King” Kong rode like a rodeo cowboy in the movie “Dr. Strangelove.” Nearby was a surface to air missile similar to the one that brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight Canada Goose Outlet 17 over Ukraine in July 2014. buy canada goose jacket

canada goose uk outlet The museum tour guides are all former Soviet officers who once worked at the missile base. Ours, Gennadiy Fil’, once manned the nuclear controls. When American tourists dallied, snapping photos of the rockets above ground, canada goose black friday sale he barked: “Ledz go!” canada goose uk outlet

Then he darted through a heavy door of a squat building, down a series of winding stairs and through an underground tunnel, navigating by memory through the narrow, 500 foot long passageway to the control center in a silo. The narrow cylinder is suspended from the ground theoretically, to withstand the shock of a counterattack.

canada goose clearance Gennadiy Fil’, who once was a Soviet army officer stationed at the base, Canada Goose Jackets now is a tour guide. (Cheryl L. Reed/For The Washington Post) canada goose clearance

Canada Goose Outlet In six hour shifts, Fil’ and another officer would descend in a tiny elevator (maximum capacity: three people) to the bottom of the silo. Stationed at metal consoles in an 11 by 11 control room, they would read secret codes from Moscow that flashed on a computer screen, then quickly tap them into a dingy yellow Canada Goose Parka monitor. Then, they pressed a small, gray button and turned a key on the opposite side of the terminal to launch up to 10 nuclear rockets at once. Canada Goose Outlet

“You don’t launch just one missile, because the other side is going to shoot back canadian goose jacket and destroy you,” explained Elena Smerichevskaya, our Ukrainian interpreter. An intercontinental ballistic rocket fired at New York, she explained, would take about 25 minutes to hit its target.

canada goose Fil,’ 55, said he never knew when he would be ordered to input real codes. It was his job, he said and shrugged. He said he had no moral objections to pushing the button. Launching nuclear missiles was a “political decision,” something that people on top of the ground decided, not him. canada goose

canada goose black friday sale He admitted that he was scared about the possibility of nuclear war. “You’d have to be crazy in the head not to be scared,” he said. canada goose black friday sale

buy canada goose jacket cheap But just in case Fil’ or a fellow officer (two officers were required to launch a rocket) refused to push their buttons, reserve officers could be called up from a compartment beneath the control center. buy canada goose jacket cheap

For officers like Fil’, there were both mental and physical Canada Goose online challenges. The compartments were hermetically sealed, and Fil’ said there was immense pressure on their ears. There were also concerns about the psychological impact of being isolated in the chambers. While the Soviets kept enough food and water on hand for 45 days, some men started to become batty after only two or three days inside the silo bunker, Smerichevskaya said.

cheap Canada Goose While Fil’ is glad the world didn’t implode under his watch, he said he is sad to have lost his job behind the missile controls. cheap Canada Goose

At this seat at the former Pervomaysk Missile Base, an officer with the correct codes could launch up to 10 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles. (Cheryl L. Reed/For The Washington Post)

Canada Goose Jackets In 1994, three years after Ukraine became independent, it joined the Non Proliferation Treaty and agreed to dismantle its 1,900 Soviet missiles. At the time, Ukraine boasted the world’s third largest stockpile of nuclear warheads after Russia and the United States. Ukraine shipped its nuclear warheads to Russia and dismantled its silos, often blowing them up or filling them with cement. The control silo at Pervomaysk was the only one spared so it could become buy canada goose jacket a museum. The 46th Rocket Division, part of the 43rd Rocket Army, was disbanded in 2001. Canada Goose Jackets

Canada Goose Online As a child growing up in the Cold War who was taught to hide under her school desk in case of a nuclear attack, I found it surreal to meet a man who at the same time had his fingers on the triggers of the Soviet Union’s nuclear warheads. Canada Goose Online

canada goose coats Fil’ shakes his head at how things have changed. “I never thought I’d be standing here talking to an American,” he said, his eyes wide with amazement. “I never thought canada goose clearance sale I’d be having my picture taken. That was absolutely forbidden. And now.. it’s okay.” canada goose coats.