Learn how the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster continued to affect survivors' health 30 years later, their entitlements reduced and compensations not paid
Learn how the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster continued to affect survivors' health 30 years later, their entitlements reduced and compensations not paid
How the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 continued to affect survivors' health 30 years later.
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Transcript
NEWSCASTER: It has been 30 years since the world's worst nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in Ukraine. Thousands of emergency personnel responded to contain the fallout. But three decades later, survivors are still struggling with their health. CCTV's Elena Casas reports.
ELENA CASAS: In the early morning of April 26, 1986, a huge explosion shook the fourth reactor at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, flinging out radioactive debris from the reactor's core. The fire burned for 15 days. And the firemen fighting it received up to 200 times a lethal dose of radiation. Nikolai Ostretsov was a senior nuclear scientist at the site.
NIKOLAI OSTRETSOV: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
INTERPRETER: The people arriving there for the first time didn't understand the danger, especially the firefighters who initially thought they were extinguishing a regular fire. That's why they died within a week.
CASAS: Soviet authorities were afraid the leaked radioactive material would spark an even bigger explosion, so hundreds of thousands of soldiers were sent to the site to clear up the nuclear debris.
OSTRETSOV: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
INTERPRETER: We were well aware of the danger in what we were doing, that the soldiers were in a very bad situation. They worked in the most contaminated areas and did all the dirty work.
CASAS: Ostretsov has himself suffered heart problems and cancer he blames on the radiation. This is the design for a monument the Russian government plans to build at this memorial site to the first responders to the nuclear disaster. At least 800,000 mostly young soldiers and firemen risked their lives clearing up the initial fallout. Victims groups say one in five of them had died young by 2005, and 90% of survivors are suffering from radiation-related diseases.
Under the Soviet Union, the survivors were promised lifelong benefits. Lawyer Vyacheslav Kitayev was himself a first responder. Now he helps others fight for their legal rights. He says a series of laws passed in recent years has reduced their entitlements. In 2004 they lost the right to free health care and public transport, while later rule changes have capped their payments.
VYACHESLAV KITAYEV: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
INTERPRETER: There was also a law dealing with the rights of military servicemen which prohibited them from receiving compensation for the harm they've suffered calculated from their official salary. The Constitutional Court has ruled three times that this is unconstitutional.
CASAS: Kitayev says disabled Chernobyl survivors cannot afford the medication they need, with some receiving just 15 US dollars a month from the state. 30 years on, they continue to fight for the compensation they were promised.
Elena Casas, CCTV, Moscow.
ELENA CASAS: In the early morning of April 26, 1986, a huge explosion shook the fourth reactor at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, flinging out radioactive debris from the reactor's core. The fire burned for 15 days. And the firemen fighting it received up to 200 times a lethal dose of radiation. Nikolai Ostretsov was a senior nuclear scientist at the site.
NIKOLAI OSTRETSOV: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
INTERPRETER: The people arriving there for the first time didn't understand the danger, especially the firefighters who initially thought they were extinguishing a regular fire. That's why they died within a week.
CASAS: Soviet authorities were afraid the leaked radioactive material would spark an even bigger explosion, so hundreds of thousands of soldiers were sent to the site to clear up the nuclear debris.
OSTRETSOV: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
INTERPRETER: We were well aware of the danger in what we were doing, that the soldiers were in a very bad situation. They worked in the most contaminated areas and did all the dirty work.
CASAS: Ostretsov has himself suffered heart problems and cancer he blames on the radiation. This is the design for a monument the Russian government plans to build at this memorial site to the first responders to the nuclear disaster. At least 800,000 mostly young soldiers and firemen risked their lives clearing up the initial fallout. Victims groups say one in five of them had died young by 2005, and 90% of survivors are suffering from radiation-related diseases.
Under the Soviet Union, the survivors were promised lifelong benefits. Lawyer Vyacheslav Kitayev was himself a first responder. Now he helps others fight for their legal rights. He says a series of laws passed in recent years has reduced their entitlements. In 2004 they lost the right to free health care and public transport, while later rule changes have capped their payments.
VYACHESLAV KITAYEV: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
INTERPRETER: There was also a law dealing with the rights of military servicemen which prohibited them from receiving compensation for the harm they've suffered calculated from their official salary. The Constitutional Court has ruled three times that this is unconstitutional.
CASAS: Kitayev says disabled Chernobyl survivors cannot afford the medication they need, with some receiving just 15 US dollars a month from the state. 30 years on, they continue to fight for the compensation they were promised.
Elena Casas, CCTV, Moscow.