{"id":66648,"date":"2024-04-26T10:08:14","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T08:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=66648"},"modified":"2024-09-05T15:14:52","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T13:14:52","slug":"grim-nuclear-anniversary-zaporizhzhia-chornobyl-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/66648\/grim-nuclear-anniversary-zaporizhzhia-chornobyl-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Grim nuclear anniversary: Zaporizhzhia must not repeat Chornobyl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chornobyl<\/a> is one of the most recognised synonyms for disaster in the world. Its legacy is a universal reminder of the horrific consequences of nuclear power when things goes wrong: on this day in 1986, a test procedure produced explosions at the power plant in Pripyat, Ukraine, causing a chain reaction that blew a colossal release of radioactive contamination across Europe and eventually much of the Northern Hemisphere.  <\/p>\n\n

Millions<\/a> of Ukrainians have been affected by the destruction of reactor unit 4 and the radiation it released into the environment, either directly or through their families, friends and colleagues and its impact is still felt across generations. <\/p>\n\n

\"Activist
Activist at the ferris wheel in the abandoned town of Pripyat, near the Chornobyl Nuclear Plant, Ukraine.
\u00a9 Shaun Burnie \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Today, 38 years later, the spectre of nuclear catastrophe looms large – and not only in the abandoned region around Chornobyl: the ongoing illegal Russian military occupation of the south-eastern Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe and one of the 10 biggest in the world, installed by force the Russian state nuclear authority Rosatom. In doing so, Moscow placed in danger not only Ukraine, but most of Europe – and with chilling echoes of a Soviet era mentality that prioritised domination over life and safety and produced the catastrophe in Chornobyl. <\/p>\n\n

Chornobyl\u2019s RBMK reactor design had evolved out of the Soviet Union\u2019s 1950s military reactors used for producing plutonium for nuclear weapons, and were known even then to be unsafe. Scientists warning of integral instabilities, including a \u2018positive steam coefficient\u2019 which could lead to an explosion, were ignored. Twenty years later, that design flaw and others led to two massive explosions that destroyed the Chornobyl unit 4 reactor and shook the world. <\/p>\n\n

In the years between 1986-1990, over 600,000 firefighters, soldiers, janitors, and miners – collectively known as \u2018liquidators\u2019 – were sent to the Chornobyl site after the explosion in an attempt to respond to the disaster. Many tens of thousands have suffered long term health consequences and death.<\/p>\n\n

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