Ukraine marks Chernobyl’s 30th anniversary

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. Relatives of those who died as a result of the world’s worst nuclear accident attended a candle-lit vigil in a Kiev church, built in their memory. 

“This accident was silent nuclear war for us,” said Lyudmila Kamkina, a former worker at the plant. Others gathered for a service in Slavutych, a town 50 km (30 miles) from Chernobyl that was established to house many of those who had to leave their homes for ever.

More than half a million civilian and military personnel were drafted in from across the former Soviet Union as so-called liquidators to clean-up and contain the nuclear fallout, according to the World Health Organization. Thirty-one plant workers and firemen died in the immediate aftermath of the accident, most from acute radiation sickness. 

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. The anniversary has garnered extra attention due to the imminent completion of a giant $1.7 billion steel-clad arch that will enclose the stricken reactor site and prevent further leaks for the next 100 years.