The Chernobyl Nuclear Accident

On April 26th, 1986 there was an explosion
at a nuclear power plant at Chernobyl, on the
border between Ukraine and Belarus.

Many tons of radioactive materials were thrown
into the air. Some of these were carried around
the world, but 70 per cent of the radioactive
substances blew north over the population of
Belarus. A quarter of the country's best farmlands
and forests have been poisoned for hundreds of
years by caesium 137 and strontium 90.

Where there is plutonium the land will be
uninhabitable for ever. Hundreds of towns and
villages were evacuated, and the entire country
has been declared a zone of international
ecological disaster.

In southern Belarus thyroid cancer in children
has increased by more than 100 times, due to
the large amounts of radioactive iodine they
have ingested, and there have been rises in many
other types of cancer, diabetes, heart disease,
respiratory problems, ailments of the digestive
system and birth defects.

Time has not been a healer for the people of
Belarus and the greatest fear is for the children
of future generations.

Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the
disaster and hundreds of thousands of people
from the worst affected areas hope and pray
that the international community will come to
their aid and help heal the Chernobyl legacy.