Chernobyl
It's a serious day in Ukraine today. It has been 20 years since the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine. The World Health Organization estimates that 9,000 people have died as a result of the radiation released in the explosion, while Greenpeace claims that the number is more like 93,000, including the continuing diseases and deaths.
Services were held all over Ukraine to commemorate the victims. We took time in our base staff meeting today to pray for the victim's families. I read online a few minutes ago that the government hastily covered the remains of the exploded reactor in a steel cover to contain the deadly chemicals back in 1986, but now that cover is starting to disintegrate and is leaking. Now, the government needs to build a new one, which could cost millions of dollars. So, we spent some time praying about that as well.
When we were in Yalta, Ukraine last year, we saw some people who were born extremely deformed because of the Chernobyl disaster. I think it was only then that the event that I had only read about in history books became real to me. People born without limbs, with their faces horribly deformed, all because they were born too close to the Chernobyl area.
Yes, it's a sobering day here in Ukraine.
posted by Jeannette @ 1:35 PM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
60 minutes (in Oz) just did a feature on it about a week back, man it broke my heart man.
I had always remained quite ignorant to what had happened there, but seeing all these severely (really severely) handicapped kids that have been abandoned just hit home. There are some Irish ladies out there just sacrificing their lives to look after them and man their sacrifice is more than I have ever given!
And it is true that the concrete shell is probably going to collapse soon and send radioactive dust all over the country! Unfortunately I don't think they're going to spend the money on a new shell! and some of the money proposed to be set aside, has gotten 'lost' on the way
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