UKRAINE: Town of Slavutych, where all former Chernobyl power plants employees now live, holds a vigil on the 25th anniversary of the disaster

Record ID: 215821

  • Title: UKRAINE: Town of Slavutych, where all former Chernobyl power plants employees now live, holds a vigil on the 25th anniversary of the disaster
  • Date: 27th April 2011
  • Summary: BATUNIN LEAVING MEMORIAL SITE TEENAGERS WALKING PAST STATUE
  • Embargoed: 12th May 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine, Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,History
  • Reuters ID: LVACLBZH5YMN43GJM8D79DZ9U3YY
  • Story Text: Slavutych - 40 kilometres from Chernobyl - was built to host residents of Pripyat - the city nearest Chernobyl that is now an eerie ghost town - and many of those that came to the memorial service lived and worked near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant when the fatal accident happened on the night of April 26, 1986.
    Starting with a minute of silence at exactly 0126 (2126 GMT) Tuesday night-- the time of the Chernobyl fire and explosion twenty-five years ago - Slavutych residents lit candles and laid flowers at the city's Chernobyl memorial statue, paying tribute to those who gave their lives trying to eliminate the fire at the fourth nuclear reactor.
    The official immediate death toll from Chernobyl was 32, but many more died of radiation-related sicknesses such as cancer, many of them in neighbouring Belarus.
    Vladimir Batunin, a former liquidator and station employee still bears the scars from his work in cleaning up Chernobyl.
    Walking with the aid of crutches, he came to lay a candle at the statue and said that life is difficult for him as a disabled person.
    "Who needs us now? No one. I've been asking for three years for someone to make a ramp in the entrance to my apartment building. No - two times they've said no. It's hard to live as a handicapped person," Batunin said.
    Chernobyl's total death toll and long-term health effects remain a subject of intense debate.
    Chernobyl has remained the benchmark for nuclear accidents.
    On April 12, Japan raised the severity rating at its Fukushima plant to seven, the same level as that of Chernobyl.
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