Illegal business in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is flourishing. "Fonjaschaya" reinforcing steel is a thing of the past-all the metal from here has already been traced. But there was a forest and what the earth holds. Therefore, radioactive furniture and death-bearing decorations are not fantasy inventions, but the realities of local places.

With the advent of spring in the Chernobyl zone again pulled people. Living in Ukraine is becoming increasingly difficult, and the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant still provides an opportunity for earning. That is why the teams of loggers are actively working here, as well as groups of diggers engaged in amber mining, the Ukrainian website "Vesti".

Woodcutting is set here on a very broad foot. Along flattering glades, there are already stacks of logs that will soon be removed for processing. According to the local forester, the trees are cut down on a scale, dozens of hectares, with mainly valuable trees - oak, alder, beech. The bulk is exported in the evening or at night, on weekends.

This is not taken up solely by individuals, but by well-organized groups with connections in government bodies. After all, there is a car to leave the zone, each cargo immediately appears legal documents.

The wood cut in the exclusion zone, as a rule, goes to furniture manufacturing, despite the fact that its radiation background is several times higher than the norm. However, environmentalist Vladimir Boreiko points out, it is hard to detect this by ordinary household dosimeters.

However, experts believe that the extraction and export of forests from the Chernobyl zone large mafia structures are not interested. This is done by small gangs, who nevertheless have good connections with local authorities, in particular, with the police. This explains the fact that no one interferes with their criminal business.

Another illegal type of business that thrives in the Chernobyl zone is illegal mining of amber. The bulk of diggers extract "sun stone" in Rivne, Volyn and Zhytomyr regions. They are well organized and armed and do not allow others.

Therefore, those who did not have a chance to stake out a site in clean regions go to the unclean: amber lies in the Polessky region on the very border with the Chernobyl zone, as well as inside it. Last year, six people tried to start production near the village of Terekhi, located inside a 30-kilometer Chernobyl zone. People were detained without documents, who had a Volkswagen Transporter car, as well as a hand-built motor pump with sleeves.

In general, industrial mining of amber is impossible here, since the stone content in the rock is small, about 5-7 grams per cubic meter. Serious reserves are at a depth of 20 to 40 meters, but its extraction requires serious equipment, says senior researcher of the Institute of Geological Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Viktor Matsui.

But, apparently, this is not an obstacle, as amber does not disappear on the "black" market of Ukraine. They are very interested in Chinese resellers who give good money for it. In the Middle Kingdom believe that the amulets from this stone stabilize the aura and have a good healing effect. Hardly the owner of such an amulet suspects that he carries a permanent source of radiation and causes irreparable harm to his health.

Recently, at the Borispol airport, a Chinese citizen tried to transport 32 kg of illegally mined amber worth over 3 million hryvnias to Beijing via Moscow. According to the court's decision, he got off 1700 hryvnia fine. Another representative of the Celestial Empire tried to carry through the "green corridor" amber for 700 thousand. Hryvnia, hiding them in packages with pasta, biscuits and chocolate Roshen ".

Experts point out that symbolic punishment only contributes to the emergence of illegal channels for the transfer of radioactive stone to China. But this is not the only threat. According to Vladimir Boreiko, pirate amber mining is also a threat to the local ecology, as forests are destroyed and water sources are polluted. In addition, the extraction takes place in the radiation contaminated area, and this affects the miners themselves, their family members, and those who later deal with radioactive amber.

However, as it turned out, cargo transportation is actively going not only from the territory of Chernobyl, but also in the opposite direction. In the exclusion zone unexpectedly "emerged" Lviv garbage. The authorities of this city in the west of Ukraine can not solve the problem of recycling household waste for more than a year.

Some time ago, the mayor of Lviv, Andrei Sadovy, expressed the idea to organize a garbage site in the Chernobyl zone, it was picked up in Kiev - the authorities said that such a decision would suit the capital. Apparently, the process went on - "when inspecting the territory of the zone of alienation of the Chernobyl nuclear power station, the police identified ten dumps, and also seized from truck drivers documents confirming the place of origin of the waste," the Kyiv Police Department.