Chernobyl - 20 years later

Listen to BBC's Chernobyl: the lessons learned - What is the truth behind the Chernobyl? And why, on the 20th anniversary of the disaster, is the nuclear industry seeing an upturn in its fortunes?

News articles on the 20th anniversary:
20 years on: the horrors of Chernobyl still linger
Measuring Chernobyl's Fallout
Farms still affected by Chernobyl
UK farmers face Chernobyl horror - 20 years on
Chernobyl's Tiniest Victims
Chernobyl: the final word is yet to be said
Lukashenko equates material losses from Chernobyl, World War II
Normalcy coming back to Chernobyl-hit Belarus areas 20 years on
Survivors struggle with sickening legacy

Chernobyl: wet rugs and a run on vodka - oped piece a IHT, where the writer, Schmemann, writes: 'The greatest catastrophes take on a personality, a name: Bhopal, Oklahoma City, Sept. 11, the tsunami. These names and others have entered the language as symbols of apocalyptic tragedies. Each disaster has its own unique attributes. Chernobyl, for me, stands for a fear that many have described in recent days, a fear of an evil that cannot be seen or fathomed. I was a reporter in Moscow at the time and lived through the anxiety and questions that gripped us all in the hours, days, weeks and even months after we got the first word of the disaster - one paragraph from Tass that still ranks as one of the great understatements of all time: "An accident has occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant as one of the reactors was damaged." That's all. Unlike most of the natural or manmade threats we confront, this one had no face, no presence, no visible menace. There was no black thundercloud firing bolts of lightning, no powerful wind bending trees to the ground, no huge building disappearing into a vast cloud of dust. There was only the knowledge that a great, invisible, mysterious killer had been loosed on the world.' .....

And finally, President Gorbachev marks 20th Anniversary of Chernobyl
Meanwhile, a Russian newspaper has published transcripts of a politburo meeting during which the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev suggested covering up the real circumstances of the accident.

Chernobyl Here and Now: Global Engagement, Local Encounter To listen to speakers and find out more about this important conference which took place in Madison Wisconsin in March 2006. Two other conferences recently concluded in countries affected the most by the disaster include:

International Conference “20 Years after Chernobyl: Strategy for Recovery and Sustainable Development of the Affected Regions” (19-21 April 2006, Belarus)

International Conference “Twenty Years after Chernobyl Accident. Future Outlook” (24-26 April 2006, Ukraine)

Other Online Resources and Information:
Greenpeace report says Chernobyl death toll has been underestimated

The United Nations and Chernobyl

The Lesson Of Chernobyl

Chernobyl Disaster - Information about the Chernobyl accident. Includes causes, sequence of events, health consequences, and social, economic, political and environmental consequences

The Report on Chernobyl An independent scientific evaluation of the health and environmental effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster with critical analyses of recent reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO)

Chernobyl Pictures Collection of photos of the Chernobyl area including walkdown comments, accident information and radioactivity data measurements. Also see Ghost Town chronicling Elena's motor cycling through the Chernobyl "dead zone". Provides her pictures, maps and stories.

Chernobyl Page

Chernobyl

Chernobyl: A Nuclear Disaster