UKRAINE: Chernobyl residents celebrate easter as anniversary approaches

Record ID: 750300

  • Title: UKRAINE: Chernobyl residents celebrate easter as anniversary approaches
  • Date: 25th April 2011
  • Summary: CHERNOBYL, UKRAINE (FILE) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) HELICOPTER ABOVE REACTOR NUMBER 4 WHICH WAS DESTROYED IN EXPLOSION REMAINS OF EXPLODED REACTOR SEEN THROUGH HOLE HELICOPTER OVER REACTOR NUMBER 4 VARIOUS OF RESCUE WORKERS AT EXPLODED REACTOR CHERNOBYL POWER STATION
  • Embargoed: 10th May 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine, Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVAALPBMO074YX6NPGE2DJBDTVYO
  • Story Text: Local people from the Chernobyl area celebrated Easter on Sunday (April 24) as the 25th anniversary of the nuclear plant disaster approached.
    The residents - several hundred mostly elderly people - have returned to their villages near the power station, despite their homes being within a 30-km (19-mile) exclusion zone imposed after the accident.
    In the early hours of Sunday morning, some of the residents lit candles and offered baskets of gifts at a rebuilt Orthodox Christian church to mark the beginning of Easter day.
    "This church is from the 18th century. When the accident happened, it was ruined. But now, it has a new owner, he rebuilt it and people started coming here. This is St.Ilia's church," said Ganna, whose village, Kupovaty, like the church, lies within the exclusion zone.
    Before the accident, Kupovaty was a town of more than 10,000 residents, but it has revived as a village, boasting several offices, three shops, a bar and a Soviet-style canteen. The local authorities have turned a blind eye to the return of residents to the exclusion zone and give them help with food and electricity.
    For millions around the world, Chernobyl symbolises disaster and devastation, myth and controversy.
    On April 26, 1986, several explosions destroyed reactor No. 4 at the plant, turning it into a radioactive inferno that sent a lethal plume into the night sky.
    The blaze raged for 10 days. The cloud of radioactive strontium, caesium and plutonium affected mainly Ukraine and neighbouring Belarus, as well as parts of Russia and Europe.
    Twenty five years later, and 11 years after Chernobyl's last reactor was shut down, the area around the plant is alive with reminders of the disaster.
    The 30-km (19-mile) exclusion zone is patrolled by police and Ukraine's Emergencies Ministry. Geiger counters show radiation in some areas far above the norm, while other villages display levels lower than in Kiev, 80 kms (50 miles) to the south..
    Chernobyl has remained the benchmark for nuclear accidents.
    On April 12 this year, Japan raised the severity rating at its quake-crippled Fukushima plant to seven, the same level as that of Chernobyl.
    Chernobyl's total death toll and long-term health effects remain subjects of intense debate.
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