They aren't even wearing any hazmat suits or any protective gear? I'm confused. I thought that whole area was off limit to humans. That whole disaster took place like 30 years ago so that means the radiation levels are safe now? I'm even more confused now!

#1 the area is not safe, but as I recall you can go there and take a look at it yourself if you like...which in fact is an item on my bucket list.
Protective gear is recommended (I was wondering the same thing about the workers), altough you won´t get serious radiation sickness if you stay away from the reactor core like a couple hundred meters or so.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_Exclusion_Zone

2. CorpseGrinder - indeed. Out of curiosity looked it up. Just look at the rules for visitors.

Prohibited tourist attire, according to Chernobyl Tour, includes: shorts, short trousers, skirts, open footwear, and short sleeves. Prohibited behavior includes: eating, drinking and smoking in open air; touching buildings, trees, plants; gathering and eating mushrooms, berries, fruit, and nuts in forests and gardens of the abandoned settlements, sitting on the ground, putting photo and video cameras, bags, backpacks and other personal belongings on the ground.

According to PBS, 10 minutes next to the No. 4 reactor gives someone close to seven times more than a fatal dose of radiation.


https://www.inverse.com/article/14741-is-chernobyl-safe-it-depends-how-you-define-safe

Wondering why they waited 30 years to do this..

As we clearly see, we need to protect us from ourselves the most...

#4 Limited tehcnology. At least less than today. Now we also know significantly more about the situation. We want to do this only once, therefore the long research etc. What you see is the best of ingenuity that 2016, not 1984, can offer.

#6 Makes sense..thanks!

ummm.....isnt working there dangerous?