This video was made July 12-13, 2011.
<p>South of the "Yanov" train station near Pripyat lie an assortment of abandoned military vehicles, purportedly used for the demolition of the town of Kopachi after the Chernobyl accident.  They're notably radioactive even in a landscape littered with contaminated materials.  In this video we focus on the treads of one of the tracked military vehicles, illustrating by means of a Geiger counter the high level of radioactivity trapped in the recesses in the tread .
</p><p>The Geiger tube in use is the probe of an American-made CDV-700.  This tube is roughly energy-compensated and, with the probe's beta shield closed, provides a credibly accurate measurement of gamma exposure rate.  The nuclide presumed responsible is Cs-137 at this point.
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The treads on the second vehicle visited in the clip measure approximately 60,000 CPM or 100 milliroentgens / hour.  Again, that measurement is made with the probe shield CLOSED.  This count rate is twice the highest reading available on the CDV-700 itself, so it's fortunate that we are using a better ratemeter (a Ludlum Model 12).
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.youtube.com/user/Thallium208">Carl Willis</a>
CC BY 3.0
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