Traveling to Chernobyl, Ukraine

I'm very interested in traveling to Chernobyl in the next few years. I'm a photographer and it's just been a dream of mine since I was a child to shoot there. I cannot, however, find out much information on traveling there.
I've gone through search engines and such and only come up with stories of the disaster, which I already know about.I have yet to find any info on how to go about traveling there: getting in and the rules and regulations that probably go along with it.

Anyone know any websites or books I should read? Maybe any advice from someone whose been there or knows someone who has?

Not that this will help much but I recently saw a BBC documentary with Michael Palin called Pole to Pole where he travelled through the Ukraine. He went to a village near Chernobyl and it was just si interesting. I'm sure you could dig up the DVD of the series and he probably had books to accompany the show. it might give you some hints!

So when i was living in Kiev, I really wanted to go to Chernobyl also. But I could not find really anyone that wanted to take me, I guess the city is gone, there is not much there. in Kiev there is a really great Chernobyl museum, lots of great things that they have taken from Chernobyl.

Your best bet is to have enough money to pay someone in Kiev to take you there.

good luck

I don't know anything about traveling in that part of the world, but take along your radiation suit.

It's STILL hot there from the accident in 1985 - 86, whatever it was. People are dying there because of the radiation poisoning!

I found this, maybe it might help:
http://www.tourkiev.com/chernobyl.php

+

there are nice photos about it too:
http://www.englishrussia.com/?p=293

I did meet a couple of guys in Russia who had organised a tour to Chernobyl, or at least Pripyat. I can't remember who they organised it through. I think it was a Russian agency. They were also doing a tour of Star City. The only thing I can remember was it wasn't cheap.

Found this on the web:

You cannot just go to Chernobyl or have some friends take you. It is still a restricted area and you MUST travel with a government-approved tour and follow a number of very mind-numbing procedures both before and during your trip (like wearing a special protective suit). There are several approved guides in Kyiv and some have websites in English on the internet. When I was living in Ukraine I had the opportunity to go with one of these tours and it was going to cost about $100. I would rather spend a day walking through the ancient churches of Kyiv than getting a chest x-ray level dose of radiation and looking at empty buildings.

[panzerwagen]

Don't worry about radiation. The tourist places in the Chernobyl zone are free of radiation and you needn't special protective suit. As for me, I threw out my clothes and shoes after a visit to Chernobyl nuclear station this summer. Just in case.
There are a lot of tourist companies in Kiev which organize 1 or 2-days tours to Chernobyl. So it's not a problem. But the price is rather high because of great popularity.
If you wish, write me at travel@be-travel-ukraine.com
I'm not interested in such kind of tourism (my field is business travel in Ukraine) but I can help you with advice.