Watch This Car Drive Into Japan’s Eerily Quiet Nuclear Evacuation Zone

This reporter films his journey into the evacuation zone around Japan’s troubled Fukushima nuclear plant. Normally crowded streets are empty but for a pack of dogs and a few flat-bed trucks carrying unknown cargo. A Geiger counter measures extremely high radiation.

The trip starts at about 29km from the plant, which is not currently in the 20km evacuation zone (though may soon be). It’s clear people have taken international warnings to heart and have fled close to the plant.

At one point the reporter finds a damaged, impassible highway and must turn around to find a side street to venture closer to the heart of the radiation zone. The Geiger counter on the dash beeps incessantly, showing levels as high as 122 μsv/h when they get within viewing distance of the plant, which is 360 times the average radioactive amount a human gets as background radiation.

Other than one crushed police car, the authorities are notably absent in this video and appear to be heeding the warnings to stay away from the area. It’s just a few dogs and this reporter.