Remembering Chernobyl
Thousands of people in Ukraine on Saturday (26/4) marked the 28th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident.- The explosion and fire at Chernobyl's No. 4 reactor contaminated 23 percent of Belarus, 5 percent of Ukraine and 1.5 percent of Russia, according to the report. Photo courtesy: Nico Debarmore
- Ukrainian experts say that the concrete-and-steel shelter that was hastily constructed over the damaged reactor needs urgent repairs, but authorities claim that there are no serious safety threats.
- Nearly 1,000 mourners gathered Monday afternoon at Kiev's memorial to Chernobyl victims, a soaring statue of five falling metallic swans. Some placed flowers and photos of deceased relatives at its base.
- Hundreds of Ukrainians filled the small Chernobyl victims' chapel in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.
- In all, 7 million people in the former Soviet republics of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine are estimated to suffer physical or psychological effects of the radiation.
- An area half the size of Italy was contaminated, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to be resettled and ruining some of Europe's most fertile agricultural land, the United Nations said.
- On April 26, 1986, a reactor at the plant, in the then Soviet Union, exploded and caught fire after a safety test went badly wrong. The blast sent radiation billowing across Europe.
- Unlike Japan’s Fukushima nuclear crisis in 2011. which was caused by a natural disaster, events at Chernobyl were the result of human error.
- Today at around 1.26 am, the exact time of the blast, people gathered at a memorial in the capital Kyiv to remember victims. Among those attending were families who had lost loved ones and ex-employees.
- Today, driving along the zone's potholed roads, you glimpse abandoned villages. Some buildings are still in use by guards at Burakivka, which is one of the main graveyards for radioactive waste
- Evacuations began 36 hours after the explosion, but many villagers reportedly waited days for transport out of the city.
- The nuclear accident, at Chernobyl in April 1986, led to the creation of a 30km exclusion zone around the plant. Entry to the zone is now strictly controlled through checkpoints.
- The radioactive cloud that drifted across Europe caused widespread contamination. The accident immediately killed at least 32 people. About 4,000 additional deaths since then have been linked to the Chernobyl explosion.
- Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl plant exploded and released into the atmosphere 200 times the combined radiation unleashed by the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Thousands of people in Ukraine on Saturday (26/4) marked the 28th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident.
Remembering Chernobyl
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