Yes, actually it inspired me to go, though it was already on my list. Lucky I was married to a Ukrainian and she surprised me on my first trip with a "private" military escorted tour (her dad's connections). Now it's fairly common, but back then you had to have a reason to go. In our group were nuclear engineers from Sweden. We had to go through two military checkpoints and upon leaving go through another where they made us crawl through "boxes" that detected radiation as well as check our shoes (it's mostly in soil).
Was an amazing life/photography experience. Coincidentally, a few years later I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Who would have though!? A few publications used my photos and I still enjoy looking through them. We ate lunch there and crazy enough tons of people actually work in the zone daily. I highly recommend going if you can, just get an MRI a few years later to double check ;)