Radek Laboratory Pripyat

This kindergarten on the northern side of Pripyat was reconverted to a contaminated soil research laboratory named Radek. The building contains thousands of soil samples from the entire Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. It was abandoned in 1998.

Kindergarten Joy or in Russian Радость, was one of the latest preschools that was built in the city. It was a big building that housed a nursery and a kindergarten. When the city was evacuated following the Chernobyl disaster, the buildings were not left abandoned for long.

For about 10 years, many city buildings were used by liquidators and researchers. In order not to pollute the 30-kilometer exclusion zone, it was decided to equip small laboratories in Pripyat itself. The city had about five laboratories. The state-owned enterprise GNPP Radek was housed in the old kindergarten. It runs a radiation monitoring laboratory. Contaminated soil was brought here to be tested.