Chernobyl 32 Years After the Tragedy

Today the Ukrainian city of Chernobyl and its surrounding areas are an apocalyptic landscape of nuclear fallout.  It is forbidden to enter many areas under government restrictions.

Chernobyl has been the biggest environmental and human disaster of its kind in history.  Hundreds of thousands of residents in the area were forced to flee, with no possibility to return to their homes.  Many of them live with the social stigma of being an “exposed person.”

The long-lived radiation makes the exact location of the blast unsafe for humans for the next 20,000 years, and for the surrounding 30 km exclusion zone, between 20 to several hundred years, due to the uneven contamination.

Today, the area is not enirely without life, and there are 3,500 workers who work in and around Chernobyl.

The Ukranian government allows people to visit the area, but under strict conditions. The radiation levels are extremely dynamic, and the environment is lethal.  Unless you are a qualified nuclear fallout expert and wearing professional equipment, the area is deadly.

On April 26, 1986 when Chernobyls reactor number 4 exploded, workers of the nuclear power plant and their families, who lived in the nearby town of Prypyat, were evacuated 40 hours after the explosion. By the time they were evacuated, they had suffered nuclear poisoning.  The evacuation took so long to begin because the Russian government wanted to deny to the world, and to its people, that the explosion and disaster had ever taken place. The government did not give the people reliable information, and there was a general mistrust of official information.

At the time, figures predicted that 4,000 to half a million people would die from the nuclear fallout. Farms across Europe, and as far as Wales, would be affected for decades.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 600,000 clean-up workers were exposed to high levels of radioactive materials.  Currently over 5 million people in Belarus, the Russian Federation, and the Ukraine live in areas with levels of radioactive materials which exceed healthy standards.  Hundreds of thousands of people live in contamination areas, which are classified as strictly controlled zones by the Russian government.

There have been over 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer in young children and adolescents, all of the cases are directly linked to Chernobyl.  The incidence of Leukemia doubled in clean-up workers, as well as an increase in breast cancer. Thirty-one clean-up workers died in 1986 due to acute radiation sickness, and hundreds of others have since died.

According the WHO, an increased number of cancer deaths can be expected during the lifetime of persons exposed to radiation from the accident.

Another devastating consequence of Chernobyl is the hundreds of abandoned dogs who inhabit the area.  Driven out of the woods by wolves, the dogs live near the Chernobyl plant, and throughout the villages of the exclusion zone.  They are descendents of the dogs left behind after the disaster.  A gut-wrenching history of Chernobyl tells of soldiers who kicked dogs out of the evacuation buses, and government squads who were sent to shoot the dogs that were left behind.  Some of the dogs survived, and now their descendents inhabit the area. These dogs have high levels of radiation in their fur. There are almost no dogs over the age of 5 as they live shortened lives, and they are in dire need of medical attention.  Some of the dogs get scraps of food, and shelter from the guards who work near the zone’s checkpoints.

The Clean Futures Fund, is a U.S. non-profit organization that helps communities affected by industrial accidents.  The organization has set up three veterinary clinics in the area, and provides food and long-term care for the dogs.  Some of the workers in the area have adopted the dogs, but the majority are malnourished, and some of them have been exposed to rabies by wild animals in the area.

The nuclear power plant authority has hired a worker to kill these dogs, but the worker has refused to do so. The Clean Futures Fund needs help to prevent this cruel and inhumane consequence.

Today the dogs of the Chernobyl Power Plant rely on workers to stay alive, but they risk exposure to rabies by interacting with the dogs.  CCF is working to bring veterinarians to the area to administer rabies shots, and to spay and neuter the dogs.

The CCF also supports the Chernobyl community by providing healthcare for sick and disabled children.  They provide direct financial assistance, medical diagnosis, treatment and medicine in affected areas, and with assistance with conditions that require international medical attention.  The organization also accepts donations for the local Slavutych Hospital, which is in dire need of equipment and supplies.

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