Ukraine Remembers The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster 29 Years Ago

AFP: Ukraine marks 29 years since Chernobyl disaster

SLAVUTYCH, Ukraine: Ukrainians Sunday marked 29 years since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, laying wreaths and candles near the plant where work to lay a new seal over the reactor site has been delayed.

The explosion of reactor number four on April 26, 1986, spewed poisonous radiation over large parts of Europe, particularly Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

At 1:23 am, the exact time of the explosion, hundreds of people placed flowers and candles in the dark at the foot of a monument in Slavutych, a town 50 kilometrers (30 miles) from the plant.

Slavutych was built to rehouse Chernobyl workers who had lived near the plant and were forced to move further away after the disaster.

At the site of the plant itself, around 100 kilometres from Kiev, Ukraine's President Poroshenko laid a wreath on Sunday at a monument to the victims.

The human toll of the disaster is still disputed.

WNU Editor: I was in China when I first heard of the disaster. I called my friends in the FO in Moscow to find out what was happening and they all told me the same thing .... do not worry .... everything is alright. I called one of my uncles in Kiev (at the time was a manager for a number of factories) and he told me that he was ordered by the authorities to prepare for an evacuation at one of the plants not far from the disaster. That is when I knew that something was terribly wrong.

Throughout my life I have always been skeptical on what authorities/media outlets/government spokespersons/etc. say .... doubly so during the old Soviet Union. My colleagues and friends also had the same doubts .... but as good Communists they always gave the benefit of the doubt to the government .... and left it at that. After Chernobyl everything changed .... everyone was impacted (I have read reports that 100 million Soviet citizens were exposed to some form of radiation) .... and no excuse or apology could undo the damage that this disaster had caused. Today .... 29 years later .... millions of people are still living with that legacy .... never sure if a future cancer and/or other illness that they may be faced with is due to the lingering effects of long term radiation exposure and poisoning .... or due to natural causes.