- Title: UKRAINE: Chernobyl disaster cleanup veterans protest in Kiev
- Date: 27th April 2012
- Summary: CHERNOBYL VETERAN KNEELING NEAR MEMORIAL MAN STANDING AT MEMORIAL WOMAN PLACING FLOWER ON HILL WITH PHOTOGRAPHS OF DEAD CHERNOBYL VETERANS BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF HILL (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) LIQUIDATOR'S WIDOW, LARISSA POKOTELYUK, SAYING: "I came to honour the memory of my husband. He was a liquidator. During the early days of the Chernobyl accident, he arrived from the F
- Embargoed: 12th May 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Ukraine, Ukraine
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics: Disasters,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA6GQS85LDBVKGYP260UW4M1KBC
- Story Text: Veterans of the massive cleanup around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant No. 4 reactor that exploded in 1986, protested on Thursday (April 26) to call attention to their plight and to remember the people who lost their lives because of the disaster.
Protesters walked in procession near the Ukrainian parliament building and gathered for a memorial service in a park on the Kiev city outskirts.
Former "liquidators", as the cleanup crews who were pressed into service immediately following the meltdown are called, wore face masks, which they placed around the base of a wooden cross with radioactive symbols and "Chernobyl" written on it.
Protesters demanded the government comply fully with the rules of a law that protects citizens affected by the Chernobyl disaster, of whom 700,000 were given liquidator status. The International Atomic Energy Agency estimates that 350,000 people involved in the initial cleanup of the Chernobyl plant in 1986-87 received average total body radiation doses equal to five times the maximum annual dose limit currently permitted for workers in nuclear facilities.
"It's probably only in our government that an invalid has to defend his rights in this way--a protest action. Otherwise, the authorities don't hear us, the authorities don't understand us," said Oleksandr Yakovenko, a former liquidator.
The widow of a liquidator laid flowers at a memorial and said she was proud of her husband and others who participated in the cleanup without hesitation.
"I came to honour the memory of my husband. He was a liquidator. During the early days of the Chernobyl accident, he arrived from the Far East, bringing here a technique to save Ukraine from this disaster, he said: 'If not us, then who?' So I'm so thankful to him. There were many like him, and they did not think about their own health and about their own lives, they thought about Ukraine," said Larissa Pokotelyuk.
Reactor No. 4 at Chernobyl exploded on April 26, 1986, following a test of cooling systems at the plant. The experiment, which involved demobilising safety systems, went horribly wrong and caused a series of explosions that blew the concrete roof off the reactor and sent radioactivity billowing across Europe.
Liquidators said they would give authorities until Friday (April 27) at noon to meet their demands, or they would continue to protest. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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