- Title: Tree decorated with memories in ghost town of Prypyat near Chernobyl
- Date: 26th December 2019
- Summary: TREE ON CITY MAIN SQUARE RESIDENTIAL BUILDING, TREES IN FOREGROUND SOVIET COAT OF ARMS ON TOP OF BUILDING VARIOUS OF WOMAN CHECKING RADIATION LEVEL FERRIS WHEEL IN AMUSEMENT PARK REFLECTION OF FERRIS WHEEL IN PUDDLE GONDOLAS ON FERRIS WHEEL VARIOUS OF BUMPER CARS IN AMUSEMENT PARK FORMER PRYPYAT RESIDENTS, VIKTOR ZHYNKIN AND NADIYA ZHYNKINA, WALKING PATH THROUGH FORESTED AREA EXTERIOR OF RUINED APARTMENT BUILDING (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) FORMER PRYPYAT RESIDENTS, VIKTOR ZHYNKIN AND NADIYA ZHYNKINA, SAYING: "We left by commuter train at 7 a.m. (on April 27, 1986). NADIYA: "Then we had to walk 7 km (4.3 miles) with children to the village (to stay with relatives). Without passports, without our savings books, without anything." VIKTOR: "Without anything. We came to my mother-in-law just to stay a few days. I had to go back to work. I thought my wife could stay in the village, but I had to go back to work." WINDOWS OF BUILDING VARIOUS OF VIKTOR AND NADIYA WALKING UPSTAIRS IN APARTMENT BUILDING THEY WERE EVACUATED FROM IN 1986 VARIOUS OF VIKTOR AND NADIYA CHECKING THEIR FORMER APARTMENT PEELING PAINT ON WALL VIKTOR AND NADIYA CHECKING THEIR FORMER APARTMENT VIEW FROM WINDOW OF APARTMENT BUILDINGS ROAD SIGN ON ENTRANCE TO PRYPYAT READING (Russian): "PRYPYAT 1970" VIEW OF NEW SAFE CONFINEMENT OVER REACTOR
- Embargoed: 9th January 2020 10:34
- Keywords: Chernobyl Christmas New Year New Year tree Prypyat Ukraine accident nuclear disaster residents
- Location: PRYPYAT, UKRAINE
- City: PRYPYAT, UKRAINE
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents
- Reuters ID: LVA006BBM2Z3T
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A New Year tree was installed on Wednesday (December 25) on the main square of the abandoned town of Prypyat in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone for the first time since the April 1986 nuclear explosion.
Instead of traditional decorations, former residents of the town hung photographs on the trees branches, recalling happier times before their evacuation as the disaster unfolded.
Most of the residents recalled the day of April 26, 1986, when a botched test at reactor number 4 at the Soviet plant sent clouds of nuclear material billowing across Europe and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate.
Vera, a former resident who also worked at the power plant, said she remembered her daughter going to watch the flames from the rooftop of a building as pieces of graphite from the burning building began to fall.
Oleksandr Demidov, who used to work as a DJ in a Prypyat music hall, called for the city to be preserved as a warning of the potential risks of nuclear power.
The disaster and the government's handling of it - the evacuation order only came 36 hours after the accident - highlighted the shortcomings of the Soviet system with its unaccountable bureaucrats and entrenched culture of secrecy.
Thirty-one plant workers and firemen died in the immediate aftermath of the accident, mostly from acute radiation sickness.
Thousands more later succumbed to radiation-related illnesses such as cancer, although the total death toll and long-term health effects remain a subject of intense debate.
In Ukraine and other majority-Orthodox countries New Year is celebrated first as Christmas celebrations fall in early January. As in other countries spruce trees are decorated during December and called New Year trees rather than Christmas trees.
(Production: Sergiy Karazy, Margaryta Chornokondratenko) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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