Dr. S. P. Udayakumar, forwarded this as a reminder of the accident on April 26th 1986 an explosion at Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in northern Ukraine triggered what the United Nations has described as "the greatest environmental catastrophe in the history of humanity".

190 tons of highly radioactive uranium and graphite were expelled spewing radioactive substances to the height of more than 1km into the earth's atmosphere. The radioactive plume from the burning reactor moved north, and then west and on into Poland and Sweden, where it was first detected, taking with it radioactive Iodine 131, over millions of unsuspecting people.

Between the stricken regions of Belarus, Western Russian and Northern Ukraine, the United Nations estimates that up to 9 million people have been affected directly or indirectly by the fallout. The people of the affected areas have received the highest known exposure to radiation in the history of the atomic age, the full consequences of which will not be fully seen for at least another 50 years.

In order to prevent the test run of the reactor being interrupted, the safety systems were deliberately switched off. For the test, the reactor had to be powered down to 25 per cent of its capacity. This procedure did not go according to plan: for unknown reasons, the
reactor power level fell to less than 1 per cent. The power therefore had to be slowly increased. But 30 seconds after the start of the test, there was a sudden and unexpected power surge. The reactor's emergency shutdown (which should have halted the chain reaction) failed.

Within fractions of a second, the power level and temperature rose many times over. The reactor went out of control. There was a violent explosion. The 1000-tonne sealing cap on the reactor building was blown off. At temperatures of over 2000°C, the fuel rods melted. The graphite covering of the reactor then ignited. In the ensuing inferno, the radioactive fission products released during the core meltdown were sucked up into the atmosphere.

* 26 April to 4 May 1986: Most of the radiation is released in the first ten days. At first, northerly and northwesterly winds predominate. At the end of April the wind switches to the south and southeast. There are frequent but local showers. This results in a very varied regional and local distribution of the radiation.
* 27 April to 5 May 1986: About 1800 helicopter flights deposit around 5000 tonnes of extinguishing materials such as sand and lead onto the burning reactor.
* 27 April 1986: The inhabitants of the Pripyat power plant settlement are evacuated.
* 28 April 1986, 23:00: A Danish nuclear research laboratory announces that an MCA (Maximum Credible Accident) has occurred in the Chernobyl nuclear reactor.
* 29 April 1986: The MCA at Chernobyl is first reported in German newscasts.
* Up to 5 May 1986: Over the ten days following the accident, 130000 people are evacuated from a 30 km zone around the reactor.
* 6 May 1986: The release of radiation stops.
* 15 to 16 May 1986: New fires break out and more radiation is released.
* 23 May 1986: A Soviet government committee orders the distribution of iodine preparations. At this point, such prophylaxis is of no medical value. Radioactive iodine is only active for ten days, and will already have accumulated in the thyroid glands of the inhabitants of the contaminated territories.
* November 1986: The concrete "sarcophagus" enclosing the destroyed reactor and its molten core is completed. This shelter, or sarcophagus, was supposed to absorb the radiation and contain the remaining fuel. The sarcophagus was considered to be an interim measure. It was designed with a lifetime of only 20 to 30 years in mind. The greatest problem is a lack of stability: it was hastily constructed, and there is a risk of beams rusting.
*1989: Three years after the nuclear accident, the Soviet government halted construction of the fifth and sixth reactor units at the Chernobyl nuclear power complex.
* 2000: After prolonged international negotiations, the entire Chernobyl Nuclear Nuclear Power Station complex was closed on 12 December 2000.

Dr. Tamara Belloknya is the director of the Aksakovshina Sanatorium, the largest hospital in Belarus. It used to care for the party and government elite. Now it is the diagnostic center for the country and tests thousands of patients a year; she says: "Low level radiation creates the condition in everyone for many cancers, diseases and defects. It is getting worse. We have to find a way to live safely in these dangerous conditions. Our people need protection from their world. We have to find ways to protect our patients and the people in the future. "The incidence of pathologies of the thyroid gland continues to increase in "young adults" – those who were children at the time of the Chernobyl accident.

Novinki Children's Mental Asylum
The institution is approximately 10 kilometers from Minsk, Belarus. It hosts about 216 children between 4 and 17. At birth most of these children are so horrifying a revelation to their parents that they are immediately abandoned to the State. They are left mostly to themselves. Some play with other children but many cannot even move without help.

Many live solitary lives reacting in secret with the phantoms that inhabit them. When the children of Novinki come of age they will be transferred to the main insane asylum to live out the rest of their lives, their future a mystery.

Dr Natasha Yegorava who has been treating radiation victims since 1986 said: "There is no way out. Very often there is no way we can help some people. Our children are not healthy now. They all have weakened immune systems and genetic damage...my country is dying."

References
[1] From http://www.chernobyl-international.com/
[2] From Paul Fusco and Magdalena Caris, Chernobyl Legacy (Magnum
photos, 2001, de.MO nEditions ; www.de-mo.org)
[3] There is a German book by Antje Hilliges and Irina Wachidowa, Der Tag als die Wolke kam. Wie wir Tschernobyl überlebten (The Day the Cloud Arrived, How We Overcame Tschernobyl). Heyne München 2006 ; 272 pages.

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