Chernobyl

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Town in northern Ukraine, 100 km/62 mi north of Kiev; site of a former nuclear power station. The town is now abandoned. On 26 April 1986, two huge explosions occurred at the plant, destroying a central reactor and breaching its 1,000-tonne roof. In the immediate vicinity of Chernobyl, 31 people died (all firemen or workers at the plant) and 135,000 were permanently evacuated. It has been estimated that there will be an additional 20,000–40,000 deaths from cancer over 60 years; 600,000 people are officially classified as at risk. According to World Health Organization (WHO) figures from 1995, the incidence of thyroid cancer in children increased 200-fold in Belarus as a result of fallout from the disaster. The last remaining nuclear reactor at Chernobyl was shut down in December 2000.

The Chernobyl disaster occurred as the result of an unauthorized test being conducted, in which the reactor was run while its cooling system was inoperative. The resulting clouds of radioactive isotopes spread all over Europe, from Ireland to Greece. A total of 9 tonnes/8.9 tons of radioactive material were released into the atmosphere, 90 times the amount produced by the Hiroshima A-bomb. In all, 5 million people are thought to have been exposed to radioactivity following the blast. In Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia more than 500,000 people were displaced from affected towns and villages and thousands of square miles of land were contaminated.

Red symbolizes the revolution of 1984. The five-pointed star is said to signify the revolution or freedom. Green stands for the country's natural resources. Effective date: 4 August 1984. >>