VARIOUS: Flowers and tears mark 10th anniversay of Chernobyl nuclear disaster, wrap.

Record ID: 472575

  • Title: VARIOUS: Flowers and tears mark 10th anniversay of Chernobyl nuclear disaster, wrap.
  • Date: 27th April 2006
  • Summary: (BN10) CHERNOBYL POWER STATION (APRIL 26, 2006) (REUTERS) GROUND TO AIR SHOTS OF HELICOPTER FLYING OVER CHERNOBYL POWER STATION (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 12th May 2006 13:00
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  • Topics: International Relations,Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA2VIP11GJD6RIAC6NWNQ0J4ZES
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  • Story Text: Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko led a nationwide commemoration of 20th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident at the Chernobyl Power Station on Wednesday (April 26).
    Yushchenko, joined by Ukraine's top leaders and hundreds of mourners, paid tribute to those who lost their lives.
    The country's leaders have pledged to ensure it would never happen again.
    In his speech, Yushchenko vowed that the government will continue looking after those affected by the disaster.
    Thousands of people suffered health problems from the radiation. The "sarcophagus" is leaking and needs to be replaced -- an undertaking likely to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
    "In comparison with last year, the government has increased the budget for Chernobyl programmes by 11 percent. The budget for this year for the Chernobyl assistance programmes is 1 billion hrivnya (Ukrainian currency). This is the biggest amount of money ever budgeted for Chernobyl programmes in the 15 years of Ukrainian independence," said Yushchenko.
    But, the speaker of Ukraine's parliament, Vlodymir Litvin, blamed his government of dealing inadequately with the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear explosion, and said the disaster was far from being a closed chapter.
    Litvin made the statement at a parliament session in Kiev on Wednesday as commemoration was underway at the Chernobyl power plant.
    "Lots of bureaucratic games have been played around Chernobyl for many years. Huge amounts of money which was supposed to be used to deal with the consequences of Chernobyl simply disappeared. Today's ceremonies to mark the anniversary of the accident do -- unfortunately -- not mean that we can say farewell to Chernobyl. It will remain with Ukraine for more than one generation to come," Litvin told parliament members.
    The explosion and fire at the Chernobyl power station on April 26, 1986 sent radiation across Europe and contaminated large swathes of territory in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
    A 30 km (19 miles) exclusion zone was thrown around the reactor complex after the accident, with many of the town and villages in the area now empty of people - a powerful reminder of the impact of the world's worst nuclear accident.
    Nuclear power, out of favour for years after the accident, is now making a comeback as governments like the United States and China seek cleaner and cheaper alternatives to oil and gas.
    Soviet authorities took two days to inform the world and their own people about the accident. Fire-fighters and conscripts were sent in to extinguish the fire and clean up radioactive material, some equipped only with shovels.
    In neighbouring Belarus, prayers were said at church services held across the country.
    Mourners lit candles at the St. Mary's Church in the Belarussian capital Minsk.
    "This is a very said day. It means a lot for me. As you know very many people suffered; my relatives and friends among them. How to say it - it (the Chernobyl nuclear accident) had an effect on every person, every family, every child and adult in Belarussia," said Galina, 64, a Minsk resident.
    Belarus was one of the countries most heavily affected by the nuclear fallout from the Chernobyl accident, with the country's eastern regions downwind of the plant in Ukraine, when its number 4 reactor exploded,
    Belarus's prosecutors summoned the country's main opposition leader on Wednesday hours before a rally denouncing President Alexander Lukashenko. Belarus's opposition traditionally holds its biggest rally of the year on the Chernobyl anniversary.
    At the Vatican, Pope Benedict paid tribute to the victims and said world leaders should see to it that energy was used only for peaceful purposes and was environmentally safe.
    "As we pray once again for the victims of a calamity of such vast proportions and for those who bear its signs on their bodies, we (ask the Lord to) enlighten those who are responsible for the fate of humanity, so that with a united effort, all energy is placed in the service of peace, with full respect of the needs of man and of nature," the Pope said in his Wednesday address to thousands of people in St Peter's Square.
    In the Russian capital Moscow, thousands of people who lost their loved ones in the accident attended a ceremony.
    Bells rang at the Mitinskoye Cemetery as soldiers, officials and relatives carried giant floral wreaths to the graveyard of those who died as they tried to deal with the fallout from the Chernobyl accident.
    Thousands of firefighters, engineers and medics were sent to the scene to fight the fire and prevent other reactors from blowing up.
    Exposed to high doses of radiation, many of them died during the first night.
    Others were flown to hospitals in Moscow and died of their injuries later.
    The first firefighters to arrive at the Chernobyl plant were the worst affected. They were dead within hours. Their bodies were later flown to Moscow and laid to rest in lead-lined coffins, so their bodies would not contaminate the surrounding ground.
    Twenty years on, their relatives are still struggling to cope with the tragedy.
    "This was a catastrophe, it broke my heart, they came to take my son. Every year we come to this cemetery and of course it is difficult to come here. He should have been buried in Kiev, we are from Ukraine and every time we have to come all the way to here," wept Nathalie Pravik.
    "To lose a son is the most horrible thing. For twenty years this pain is not getting less, it is only getting worse," wept Valentina Feudorovna.
    The World Health Organisation put at 9,000 the number of extra deaths, while the environmental group Greenpeace predicts an eventual death toll of 93,000.
    Hundreds of thousands were evacuated and the United Nations estimates 7 million still live on land with unsafe radiation levels.
    Ukraine, which spent up to 10 percent of its budget on post-Chernobyl cleanup could never take on the project itself -- with a price tag of 800 million U.S. dollars to 1.4 billion U.S. dollars.
    Experts see construction of a new "sarcophagus" as part of a plan to decommission the station -- which stopped producing electricity in 2000 at the insistence of the international community, but still contains some 200 tonnes of nuclear fuel.
    Ukraine has declared Wednesday a national day of "mourning and remembrance"
    U.S. President George W. Bush, in a statement, honoured the "lives lost and communities hurt in the devastation."
    Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the anniversary was a reminder of the need for a common approach to nuclear safety, especially as many countries are planning to build new reactors.
    Ukraine's Health Ministry said in a report released on Wednesday that
    34 million Ukrainians in eight cities and more than 2,100 villages were suffering health problems linked to Chernobyl.

    ANNIVERSARIES COMMEMORATIONS NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS NUCLEAR DISASTERS
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