Ukrainians mark 30th anniversary of Chernobyl disaster

Ukrainians today mark the 30th anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl NPP, located 100 km away from Kyiv.

In the early hours of April 26, 1986, one of the largest man-made accidents in human history happened. Two explosions occurred on the fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The total radiation of isotopes released into the air amounted to 50 million curies, being 30-40 times greater than the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

The Soviet government concealed the tragedy, so nothing was done to protect people from radiation in the most affected regions of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.

Photo credit: svyat.kievcity.gov.ua

Only after indications of a nuclear accident had come from Sweden, the Soviet government informed about the Chernobyl tragedy. The explosion and fire fighting, which lasted about 10 days, killed 31 people. More than 200 people were hospitalized. According to unofficial statistics, at least 15,000 people struck by radiation died in Ukraine.

In three weeks, the reactor, which continued to emit radiation, was managed to be isolated with four million tons of sand, boron, lead and clay. Over 100,000 people were evacuated from the territory within a radius of 30 kilometers away from the scene of the accident.

To prevent further releases of radioactive materials, the fourth NPP’s reactor was covered by special “sarcophagus” built by hands of hundreds of thousands of volunteers and mobilized soldiers by the end of 1986 and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was re-commissioned. However, the second and the first reactors were stopped after the large fires and accidents in 1991 and in 1996. In 2000, the third reactor was stopped.

The accident was caused by conduct of experiment at the fourth power unit which led to the explosion due to a series of errors.