3 decades years later, Chernobyl scars still deep
KIEV, Ukraine-- With flowers, candles and tears, Ukraine on Tuesday marked the 30th anniversary of theexplosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, the world's worst nuclear disaster. Some survivors said the chaos of that time is etched in their minds forever.
A vigil was held at midnight Monday in the Ukrainian town of Slavutych, where many former Chernobyl workers were relocated, and more tributes were being held Tuesday.
About 600,000 people, often referred to as Chernobyl's "liquidators," were sent in to fight the fire at the nuclear plant and clean up the worst of its contamination. The initial explosion at the power plant killed at least 30 people, exposed millions to dangerous levels of radiation and forced a wide-scale, permanent evacuation of hundreds of towns and villages.
- 2nd Chernobyl disaster lurking in undecayed, radioactive leaves?
- Belarus ignoring risks of farming near Chernobyl?
- Chernobyl: The catastrophe that never ended
The final death toll from Chernobyl is subject to speculation, due to the long-term effects of radiation, but ranges from an estimate of 9,000 by the World Health Organization to a possible 90,000 by the environmental group Greenpeace.
Thirty years later, many could not hold back the tears as flowers and candles were brought to a memorial to the workers killed in the explosion. Some of the former liquidators who survived dressed in white robes and caps for the memorial, just like those they were wearing in the aftermath of the disaster.
Andriy Veprev, who had worked at the Chernobyl nuclear plant for 14 years before the explosion and helped to clean up the contamination, said memories of the mayhem in 1986 were still vivid.
"I'm proud of those guys who were with me and who are not with us now," he said.
Lidia Malysheva, a former Chernobyl worker whose family was relocated from Pripyat to Slavutych, said the memories of the disaster are embedded in all survivors' minds.
"We come here every year and every year it feels like the disaster was yesterday," she said. "People say 30 years has passed, but I can't believe that."
More commemorative events were being held later Tuesday outside the Chernobyl power station as well as in Belarus and Russia, neighboring countries that also suffered from the Chernobyl fallout.