The Ghosts of Chernobyl

On the night of April 25, 1986, engineers at the Chernobyl station conducted a safety test at the No.4 reactor. The operators needed to reduce the reactor's power capacity, but as the result of a miscalculation, the output dropped to a critical level, triggering an almost complete shutdown. A decision was taken immediately to increase the power level. The reactor started to overheat, and a few seconds later two large explosions occurred.

Although few knew its specifics at the time, this was one of the worst man-made catastrophes in the history of the humanity. The impact on local residents and environment was enormous. The Chernobyl accident released 400 times more radioactive material than the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan in World War II. Contamination from the Chernobyl accident was scattered across 100,000 square kilometers of land, with the worst-hit regions being in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. An estimated 8.4 million people were exposed to radiation.

The evacuation of Pripyat, a nearby town with a population of about 49,000 began on April 27, 36 hours after the initial explosions, and was completed in about three hours. In addition, hundreds of thousands were forced to relocate from the area and neighboring regions.

Despite an air of utter secrecy, the Soviet government feared that neglecting to respond quickly would endanger Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, less than 100 km away. Specialists from the Russian city of Obninsk were sent to contain the disaster, along with local fire and emergency personnel. About 9,000 recovery workers died and over 55,000 were disabled as a result of the Chernobyl tragedy; the 600,000 "liquidators" received high doses of radiation. In addition to the immediate aftermath, many people suffered from long-term health effects.

As consciousness of the tragedy spread slowly in the aftermath of the disaster itself, several regions of the then-Soviet Union joined efforts to build a new city, Slavutych, for the evacuated victims. It was to be the last city in Ukraine to be planned and constructed before the country's independence in 1991. Workers and architects from eight then-Soviet republics became involved: the Armenian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Estonian SSR, Georgian SSR, Latvian SSR, Lithuanian SSR, Russian SFSR and Ukrainian SSR. The city is divided into eight corresponding districts, each named after the capitals of the contributing republics.

The Chernobyl Exclusion Area, which has a radius of 30 kilometers (17 miles) was established soon after the disaster. In December 2003, the UN General Assembly declared April 26 as the International Day Commemorating Victims of Radiation Accidents and Catastrophes.