Chernobyl Remembrance Day 2022: April 26 is observed as the International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day to raise awareness about the consequences of the deadly nuclear disaster, which took place on the same day in 1986. The day not only informs us about the man-made disaster but also educates human beings about the risks of nuclear energy in general.
After the 30th anniversary of the accident, on December 8, 2016, the United Nations adopted the resolution and proclaimed April 26 as the International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day. The General Assembly in its resolution recognised that even after three decades of the 1986 disaster, the long-term consequences remained seriously persistent and the affected communities and territories continued to experience the related needs.
Built in 1977, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was used to make electricity for the then Soviet Union, or in modern-day Pripyat, Ukraine. Before the horrifying incident, in 1982 the Chernobyl plant had a partial meltdown of reactor 1, which caused some damage and it took a few months to repair.
This incident wasn’t reported until the Chernobyl disaster happened. In 1986, an explosion at the nuclear power plant spread a radioactive cloud over the large territories of Belarus, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation. The seriousness of the disaster can be known by the fact that around 8.4 million people in the three European nations were exposed to the radiation.
Unfortunately, it was only after four years in 1990 that the Soviet government realised the need for international assistance. As per the intergovernmental organisation, that same year the resolution was adopted by the General Assembly wherein they called for “international cooperation to address and mitigate the consequences at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.”
Well, the adoption of this resolution was the beginning of the UN’s involvement in the recovery of Chernobyl. Later, in a bid to coordinate with the Chernobyl co-operation, an Inter-Agency Task Force was established and in 1991, the Chernobyl Trust fund was also created by the UN.
But despite the efforts, the disaster has been estimated to cost around $235 billion in damages. While the accurate fatality data is still unknown, around 50 to 185 million curies of radionuclides (radioactive forms of chemical elements) were released into the atmosphere, which is several times more radioactivity than that was witnessed by the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Not only this, but scientists have estimated that the zone around the plant will not be habitable for up to 20,000 years.
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