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On April 25th -26th, 1986 the World's worst nuclear power accident occurred at Chernobyl in the former USSR (now Ukraine).

Thirty-one people died immediately and 600,000 emergency response personnel (called “liquidators”) involved in fire fighting and clean-up operations, were exposed to the high doses of radiation. Based on the official reports, near 8,400,000 people in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia were exposed to the radiation.

About 23,106 square miles were contaminated. That's more than the combined area of Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey and Masschusetts. Agricultural areas covering nearly 7,750 square miles -nearly the size of New Hampshire - were contaminated with cesium-137 and strontium-90, with 30-year and 28-year half-lives respectively.

Nearly 404,000 people were resettled but millions continued to live in an environment where continued residual exposure created a range of adverse effects.




A British website on Chernobyl

The Official United Nations website on Chernobyl

A collection of links from Belarus

A British organization devoted to making the lives of children born into the aftermath a little better.

And lastly, an article from the Christian Science Monitor entitled "Driving Through Chernobyl" - but unfortunately the link to the images doesn't seem to be working.