Home >  Gallery >  World >  Ukraine marks 30 years...

Ukraine marks 30 years since Chernobyl disaster

he disaster permanently poisoned swathes of eastern Europe and highlighted the shortcomings of the secretive Soviet system.

By :  sadhguru jaggi vasudev
Update: 2016-04-26 06:12 GMT
Ukraine prepared on Tuesday to mark the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which permanently poisoned swathes of eastern Europe and highlighted the shortcomings of the secretive Soviet system.
The disaster and the government's reaction highlighted the flaws of the Soviet system with its unaccountable bureaucrats and entrenched culture of secrecy. For example, the evacuation order only came 36 hours after the accident.
Nikolay Chernyavskiy, 65, who worked at Chernobyl and later volunteered as a liquidator, recalls climbing to the roof of his apartment block in the nearby town of Prypyat to get a look at the plant after the accident.
Over the past three decades, thousands more have succumbed to radiation-related illnesses such as cancer, although the total death toll and long-term health effects remain a subject of intense debate.
Thirty-one plant workers and firemen died in the immediate aftermath of the accident, mostly from acute radiation sickness.
Over a half a million civilian and military personnel were drafted from across the former Soviet Union as so-called liquidators' to clean-up and contain the nuclear fallout, according to the World Health Organization.
The project was funded with donations from more than 40 governments. Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said lessons learned from Chernobyl should be heeded all over the world.
The latest anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident has garnered extra attention due to the imminent completion of a giant 1.5 billion euros steel-clad arch that will enclose the stricken reactor site and prevent further leaks for the next 100 years.
In the early hours of April 26, 1986, a botched test at the nuclear plant in then-Soviet Ukraine triggered a meltdown that spewed deadly clouds of atomic material into the atmosphere, forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes.
he disaster permanently poisoned swathes of eastern Europe and highlighted the shortcomings of the secretive Soviet system.

Similar News

19 bodies recovered after landslide swept two buses into river in Nepal

In Pictures | COP26 protesters in Glasgow

This year, Hajj pilgrims to be given sterilised pebbles

For these penguins in Singapore's city zoo, lockdown is flippin' fun