40 years after Chornobyl nuclear disaster

The Ukrainian city of Slavutych is marking 40 years since Chornobyl. Many friends and relatives of people here died because of the world's worst nuclear accident.

The accident happened at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. On 26th April 1986, Reactor 4 exploded. Winds blew its radioactive material across the Soviet Union and Europe.

The Soviet government kept the accident a secret. Two days after the explosion, scientists discovered unusually high levels of radiation in Sweden.

Two engineers died because of the explosion. The radiation burned people's skin. 237 workers required hospital treatment. More than half had Acute Radiation Syndrome. After three months, 28 had died.

Radiation levels within 30 kilometres of Chornobyl were too dangerous. 115,000 people had to leave their homes.

Slavutych was built to provide homes for many families. The city's mayor, Yuriy Fomichev, sees their relatives as heroes.

Yuriy Fomichev: "April 26th is a significant date for our city. And every year on this night, we gather in the central square to honour those people who saved lives through sheer heroism. Not with technology, not for a large sum of money, but simply because it had to be done. It was necessary to save the world. It was necessary to protect the world from the danger that occurred at the Chornobyl plant."

Over the past 40 years, radiation from Chornobyl's caused between 4,000 and 16,000 deaths. People worked in dangerous conditions at the accident site to keep this number low.

These 'Chornobyl liquidators' risked their lives. They successfully contained most of the radioactive material at the accident site.

In 2016, a replacement structure to cover the site was completed. But this was damaged by a Russian attack drone in 2025.

Olga Shevchenko's the granddaughter of Chornobyl liquidators. Her father also works at Chornobyl. She says that it's important to remember the past and also care about the future.

Olga Shevchenko: "Yet this disaster is so immense that it will take many more years to fully liquidate it. I don't know how many hundreds of years it will take. And that is why we must remember both what happened and what will happen, and I don't think the two are connected." View Less