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13 April, 2006
On April 26, 20 years will have past since the largest nuclear disaster the world has ever seen. On that day in 1986, in what now is the country of Ukraine, a deadly explosion inside Chernobyl’s reactor No. 4 led to the release of a radioactive cloud that spread across large parts of the Soviet Union. A number of countries in Europe were also affected, but to a much lesser extent. Today, 20 years later, it is still difficult to identify the exact damage of the radioactive fallout.
In the immediate aftermath of the accident, the Soviet Union, with the help of the international community, poured in a lot of money to build the infrastructure needed to minimise the immediate adverse effects of the catastrophe, mainly through sealing off the damaged reactor.
As years went by, however, it became clear that, where funding was still available for infrastructural work, there was less and less money to take care of the power station workers and others who had gone into the affected area to do the actual work. A large number of these workers, all members of ICEM affiliate Atomprofspylka, the Ukrainian Nuclear Power Workers’ Union, gave their lives fighting the disaster, or subsequently died within months or years. For those who survived, the situation is bleak today with little or no job security and a largely indifferent government.
The anniversary of Chernobyl comes two days before the international Workers Memorial Day on 28 April, when trade unions everywhere commemorate workers who have lost their lives in workplace accidents.