The liquidators
Over 600 000 – some say up to 800 000 –
emergency workers, or “liquidators”, participated in the rescue and relief
operation, cleaning up radioactive debris and building a shelter, or
“sarcophagus” over the destroyed reactor. About 350 000 were young soldiers who
could not refuse to go there. Some were heroes who wanted to serve their
country and some were adventurers who took a chance to earn much money fast.
The salary was six time high and many were
promise a summer house as a bonus. The authorities knew, that they probably
never would have to fulfil their promises.
The rest of the so called liquidators were
private men and women who suddenly was called to join the army. They were
chosen by the army because of their different professions and suddenly picked
up during the nights in their homes without any possibility to refuse. At the
time most people in the former Soviet Union did not even know what had
happened. They were taken to Chernobyl where they were forced to fight the
radiation for at least three months. Many of them had to pay for that with
their lives. Those who survived are all sick. They have headache and bleeding
noses, high blood pressure, diabetes, problems with thyroid gland and different
types of cancer. Most of them also suffers from diseases in hart, liver and
lungs. Nobody can or want to prove that they do so because of the radiation
from Chernobyl. That is a big problem, since they will get no special help from
the government without proof. But it is easy to tell – and no experts seems to
disagree - that they suffer because of the accident.
A liquidator with invalid
status in Novozybkov shows photos from his time in Chernobyl. He was a truck
driver and a excavator worker. Most of his friends are now dead. Those who
survived are all organized in the so called Chernobyl Union that now is established at almost every town in the
former Soviet Union.
At least 28 of the persons who
were diagnosed with acute radiation syndrome died slow painful deaths within
three months of the accident. Thousands have suffered from long-term health
problems.
The leaking sarcophagus
Robots were used to remove bits of reactor fuel
that had been blown onto the roofs of both the turbine and Reactor 3. But not
even the robots could not cope with the enormous levels of radiation and broke
down. Soviet authorities decided that the best policy was to get young
conscripts to remove the debris by hand. The conscripts were not fully aware of
the dangers involved and received massive doses of radiation. Survivors among
them jokingly refer to themselves as “bio-robots”. The liquidators who are not
yet invalids live their lives as though they were carrying a biological ticking
bomb. They pay dearly for their heroic efforts, and certainly deserve
international support.
The exploded reactor 4 at the Lenin Nuclear
Power Plant in Chernobyl – that is in fact the correct name - were finally
covered with a led- and concrete shelter, the so called sarcophagus. The
construction was put on place by robots. It is full of holes because it is a
very bad construction and because of corrosion. Today it has holes
corresponding to at least 250 square meter. The sun shines in through those
holes and the radiation is going out. In other words, the radiation from
Chernobyl is still poisoning the world.
In Ukraine,
Belarus and the Russian Federation 250 000 people have been evacuated from the
most contaminated areas. Millions of people – some say 8 to 10 millions – still
live in areas with high levels of contamination. Resettlement on this scale is
a massive operation that continues to be a tremendous economic burden. Whole
new towns have had to be built, ready for immediate occupation. This upheaval
has placed an enormous strain on people’s lives. Building a new town is not as
simple as putting up a few tower blocks; whole communities must be
reconstructed complete with all the necessary services, institutions, jobs,
hospitals and so on. Functioning
