A group of YouTubers donned DIY scuba gear and went diving beneath the radioactive Chernobyl power plant.
Yeah, that sounds like a crazy story I made up with a car, but it looks like these guys really did it.
The group, uploaded to YouTube by Kreosan English in 2021, visited the site in Ukraine where the power plant’s No. 4 reactor exploded in April 1986.
This area is currently home to the most radioactive material on earth, and the entire Chernobyl Exclusion Zone has been designated, meaning no humans are allowed to live there.
However, the group decides to enter the “maze” under the power plant building, where the waterway is flooded.
They also made wet suits for me. (@kreosann / YouTube)
They rowed on the surface in small rubber boats and then went underwater using “homemade” equipment. And it basically includes a large bowl made of “tough, thick tempered glass,” much like the helmets worn by cartoon astronauts.
Next, we attached tubing and a boat pump with sellotape so the diver could breathe underwater. As I said, this is very DIY.
And since the water was so cold, they wrapped him in a “waist suit” with “stretch film” and literally wrapped his body in the material.
Air was then forced into the makeshift helmet, a 20kg weight was strapped to his head, and a camera was strapped to his head.
He couldn’t see anything. (@kreosann / YouTube)
Stepping into the water, he sank slowly, but could see nothing but a step and darkness.
“I can’t see anything,” said a diver who tried to explore the “really cold” water with a flashlight. There didn’t really seem to be anything more to see, as he said, “I can’t see anything” and returned to the ground.
“The water is murky and you can’t see anything,” he explained, adding that there were “animals” at the bottom and it was “like space.”
I added more weight and went down again to go deeper. This time, however, his helmet quickly filled with water and he had to resurface.
But he was surprised that his makeshift suit kept him warm, even though he couldn’t see anything underwater.
After the visit, they went to the hospital for radiological tests.
The nurse noted that the maximum score was 590, but “this is not an important metric at all.”
“One is dangerous, but there is a standard of 0.1,” she explained to them.
The nurse also advised me to get some general blood tests to make sure everything was “normal”.
