Chernobyl nuclear disaster, consequences still 39 years later

It has been 39 years since the great nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. On this day in 1986, an explosion occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, located on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border and 110 kilometers from Kiev, causing a cloud of nuclear particles to leak out.

Chernobyl, known for the worst nuclear disaster in history, is marking its 39th anniversary with empty structures and lush vegetation now covering land once inhabited by humans.

The toxic gas that emerged from the explosion affected Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and several European countries. After ten days, the toxic clouds reached the United States, Canada and Japan.

According to data from the World Health Organization, 600,000 people in a 30-kilometer area from the accident site were exposed to a high level of radiation.

About five million people in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia live in areas where the risk of radiation is high.

While an area of ??155,000 square kilometers was affected by the eruption, an agricultural area of ??52,000 square kilometers was rendered unusable for the next 30 years. Approximately 404,000 people were forced to flee their homes.

After the nuclear disaster, there was an increase in the number of people suffering from thyroid cancer, leukemia, other types of cancer, cataracts, and congenital pathologies in infants in the region.

According to the Chernobyl Forum, made up of United Nations agencies, about 4,000 people died from radiation exposure.