Chornobyl’s surviving ‘liquidators’ return 40 years after nuclear disaster
Summary
Ukraine is marking 40 years since the Chornobyl nuclear disaster, the worst civilian nuclear accident in history. Survivors of the cleanup work, known as liquidators, have returned to the site, highlighting the continuing impacts on people and the environment.Key Facts
- The Chornobyl explosion happened on April 26, 1986, during a safety test at reactor four.
- The blast spread radioactive smoke over large parts of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and across Europe.
- About 600,000 liquidators, including soldiers, firefighters, and engineers, helped contain and clean up the disaster over four years.
- Liquidators worked with limited protective gear and often did not fully understand the risks.
- Helicopters dropped sand, clay, and lead to stop the burning nuclear fuel that lasted more than 10 days.
- The nearby city of Pripyat, once home to 48,000 people, remains abandoned inside an exclusion zone.
- The exclusion zone has been closed to tourists since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
- Wildlife, including endangered horses, now live freely in the area around Chornobyl.
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