Ukraine Has Day of Mourning for Chernobyl Victims

In public gatherings, official statements and televised reports, Ukrainians on Wednesday marked the Chernobyl nuclear disaster with a degree of openness that contrasted sharply with the secrecy that once surrounded it.

When a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded and caught fire April 26, 1986, in the world’s worst nuclear accident, it was at first a nearly invisible tragedy. Soviet authorities tried to keep the accident under wraps and its deadly consequences--radiation--couldn’t be seen with the eye.

But the aftereffects are grimly visible: an estimated 4,000 deaths among those who took part in the hasty and poorly organized cleanup; 70,000 people disabled by radiation, according to government figures.

Overall, about 3.4 million of Ukraine’s 50 million people, including some 1.26 million children, are considered affected by Chernobyl, and many might not show the affects for years.

Television and newspapers dedicated much of their reporting Wednesday to the accident. Governmental officials organized news conferences, mass meetings and wreath-layings.

A religious service near St. Michael’s Church in Kiev, which is dedicated to Chernobyl victims, attracted hundreds who prayed for the souls of the dead. The service was held in the middle of the night, a reminder that the Chernobyl explosion occurred before dawn.

In a special tribute, the mourners presented flowers and lit candles for the cleanup workers known as “liquidators”--some of whom died as they battled the fire at the reactor and evacuated people.

At a memorial service in Slavutich, 90 miles from the capital, where Chernobyl workers and their families live, mourners carried flowers to the memorial for the firefighters.

Although the exploded reactor is now covered in a steel-and-concrete sarcophagus, one reactor at the Chernobyl plant still runs, suffering repeated shutdowns this winter due to safety valve failures. Officials have repeatedly promised to close the plant, but say they cannot do so until the economically strapped country gets aid to help build a plant to replace the power that would be lost.

“To close down Chernobyl without proper works and financing will be very difficult,” Ecology Protection Minister Ivan Zaiats said Wednesday.

Areas of Russia also were heavily affected by the disaster, and Russian President Vladimir Putin marked the day with a telegram sent to the head of the Russian organization for Chernobyl victims.

“Years have passed, but the black landmark of the Chernobyl tragedy still casts a shadow on the fate of millions of Russian people,” the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted the telegram as saying.

Thousands also gathered for a Chernobyl commemoration in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, which borders Ukraine.

The consequences of the accident are likely to become more visible in coming years. The number of various diseases among affected children is 17% higher on average than among their counterparts, and the incidence of some illnesses twice exceeds the norm.

A Ukrainian Health Ministry report released last week said thyroid cancer among Ukrainian children has risen dramatically since the accident. While no cases were registered in 1981-85, some 1,400 people who were children or adolescents at the time of the disaster have been operated on for thyroid cancer so far.

The government is far from clear on what to do with about 6,000 plant workers and their families once Chernobyl is closed. Vast areas of Ukraine remain contaminated by radiation. Tons of nuclear fuel apparently are still hidden inside the sarcophagus.