Local resident stands in a cemetery near the village of Kapachy, in the 30 km zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, April 15, 2011. Belarus, Ukraine and Russia will mark the 25th anniversary of the nuclear reactor explosion in Chernobyl, the place where the world's worst civil nuclear accident took place, on April 26. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
KIEV - THE world next week remembers 25 years since the worst nuclear accident in history at Chernobyl, haunted by fears that the Japan earthquake has shown again the risk of atomic power sparking apocalypse.Chernobyl has become a byword for environmental catastrophe, with the explosion on April 26, 1986 realising the worst nightmare of what can happen when a nuclear power plant goes wrong.
Workers were testing the Unit 4 reactor at Chernobyl when design flaws allowed an uncontrollable power surge, sparking explosions that completely destroyed the reactor and released five percent of its radioactive material into the atmosphere.
The radioactive matter settled in the nearby area and also blew over neighbouring regions in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia and even Western Europe, leaving a legacy of contamination that remains to this day.
The disaster became notorious for the reluctance of the then Soviet leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev to admit the disaster, only releasing news of the catastrophe three days after it had happened.
In 1986 and 1987, the Soviet government sent half a million rescue workers (known as liquidators) - still celebrated as heroes for their selfless courage - to clear up the power station and decontaminate the surrounding area. -- AFP
