The 26th of April is a special day for the people living in Ukraine and regions situated not far from it. On that day in 1986 a horrible accident occurred at the Chornobyl nuclear station. There was a nuclear reactor explosion which had far reaching consequences.
Contamination by various radioactive isotopes, such as caesium-137, iodine-131, strontium-90, plutonium-239, and plutonium – 240, from the Chornobyl nuclear accident have affected the air, land, and water of Ukraine and vast areas beyond it. Recorded but unreported radiation levels in Kyiv a few days after the accident exceeded the maximum allowable levels by a hundredfold.
Press reports claim that significant numbers of deaths by radiation sickness, elevated levels of stillbirth and birth defects and highly elevated rates of childhood leukemia have occurred in the affected areas. These claims and other concerns are being researched by a-host of scientists and medical professionals from Ukraine and other countries.
Recent detailed field studies indicate that significant areas of agricultural and forest lands of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia will remain unsafe for human occupancy and food production for upwards of eight thousand years. Nevertheless, thousands of people who were evacuated after the accident have returned to live and farm in these highly contaminated regions. Thus, the Chornobyl region, in fact, has become something of a living laboratory for the study of nuclear contamination.
A number of foreign countries offered specialized medical equipment and drugs for biological elimination of isotopes of different chemical elements from human body. Later on thousands of children were taken to other republics of the former USSR and abroad for corresponding medical treatment.
Such accidents like that in Chornobyl must never be repeated again, because the very existence of millions of people may be under a threat. The safe maintenance of nuclear power stations depends or proper work and sufficient technical knowledge of every worker and engineer.
The Ukrainian people are very grateful to all those who helped and continue to help them.
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