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Revisiting Chemobyl nuclear disaster site
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On April 26th, 1986 -- 25 years ago -- Reactor Number Four exploded at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The blast caused a raging fire, and released a cloud of radioactive particles into the air.
A quarter-century after the worst atomic accident in history, a 30-kilometer zone around the Ukraine reactor remains largely uninhibited, and contamination still impacts daily life in the area. Our correspondent, Anya Ardayeva, reports from the site of the catastrophe.
The explosion at Reactor #4 at Chernobyl Nuclear Plant on April 26, 1986, was an accident that has changed the mankind's perception of nuclear energy forever.
It also changed the life of 54-year old Alexei Moskalenko, who served at Chernobyl's police department at the time of the accident.
Retired police officer Alexei Moskalenko said, "We were all called to work, changed into our uniforms. Then we got a call that my people who were near the reactor were feeling sick, and when we got here, they were hospitalized."
Alexei and his family -- a wife and a 3-year old daughter -- lived in what is now a ghost town of Pripyat, 3 kilometers away. Pripyat was a flourishing town, with most its residents working at the nuclear power plant.
Alexei says the morning of April 26th, 1986, began just like any other day. Authorities were hoping that radiation levels would go down -- but they didn't, and residents of Pripyat were evacuated 36 hours after the initial explosion.
Alexei Moskalenko said, "They said everyone should leave town for three days. So everyone thought they would be back."
Alexei and other policemen were conducting the evacuation and ensuring that no panic was spread. He says the people were given 2 hours to pack. Over 12-hundred buses, as well as trains and river transport, were sent to evacuate Pripyat's 50-thousand residents.
Alexei Moskalenko "We weren't allowed to take any appliances with us -- refrigerators, ovens, that was strictly banned. What was allowed was one small plastic bag with personal things -- photographs, documents, everything that would fit in. I only took documents and photographs. Oh yeah, and stamps, I collected stamps. Everything else was left behind."
Anya Ardayeva said, "It took 10 days to contain fire and radioactive release that followed the explosion at Reactor #4 at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station. But 25 years after the accident, the area around the plant is still deeply contaminated, and will never really be cleaned up. Nuclear fallout and waste can be moved and stored, but not deactivated."
A 30-kilometer Exclusion Zone around the reactor was established soon after the accident, in order to prevent people from entering the heavily contaminated territory. The zone is slightly larger than the 20-kilometer zone around Fukushima -- but what is similar is that both in Ukraine and Japan, the worst-hit areas will be uninhabitable for centuries to come.
Death of 62 people was attributed directly to the accident, and in the following years, 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer were reported, mostly among children and young adults.
Alexei now works at the zone's administration, along with some 45-hundred other people, and his family lives outside the zone. While he managed to stay healthy, he said one-third of 126 of his fellow servicemen have died. The government paid him a compensation worth about 1000 dollars.
