Ukraine commemorates Chernobyl nuclear disaster

- The Ukrainian government said Tuesday the victims of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, exactly thirty years ago, commemorated with a minute of silence. President Petro Poroshenko traveled with Prime Minister Vladimir Groisman and the mayor of Kiev Vitali Klitsjko flowers at the monument to the heroes of Chernobyl,, '' in the capital. The national anthem sounded and a eregarde fired gun salute.

Porosjenko will later in the day to visit the nuclear reactor exploded 4. The accident on April 26, 1986, in then still the Soviet Union, so much radiation was released a large area in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine uninhabitable became. Chernobyl is now a Ukrainian town near the border with Belarus. On both sides of the border life hardly people. Many villages have become ghost places, where guides inquisitive disaster tourist guide.

Anno 2016, the radioactivity is still so high that it can be grown no food in many places. Still produce milk at the edge of areas of Belarus milk, which are far too high according to the health rules: namely, ten times higher than allowed. Milka dairy Vita makes it cheese to the Russian market.

In recent years, regular news out about meat of wild boar in the forests of Central Europe. Which frequently contain too much radiation. This month the alarm bells still went off in a Czech nuclear power when it appeared that an employee was radioactive. The cause was eventually not found at his workplace, but in his supper. He had eaten radioactive wild boar.

casualties

The consequences of the so-called meltdown in 1986 were disastrous. The fire that broke out a radioactive cloud of smoke into the atmosphere landed. 31 People came immediately to life, but to this day today is unknown how many people died indirectly by the radiation. Estimates of, inter alia, Greenpeace run at 000 to 200..

Only after 24 hours did a massive evacuation underway and were deported 135 000 people in an area of ​​30 kilometers around the reactor. Meanwhile, a strong east wind blew the radioactive cloud in Europe towards Scandinavia. Sweden was the first mention of the disaster behind the Iron Curtain.

Belarus has an annual commemoration of the disaster, on April 26.