Russian holidays - Day of participants in the liquidation of the consequences of radiation accidents and disasters and the memory of the victims of these accidents and disasters

Touching children's toys, as if abandoned in a hurry, abandoned buildings, a giant sarcophagus and yellow Ferris wheel trolleys in Pripyat - such images can be seen in materials dedicated to the event of April 26, 1986 The day when the largest man-made disaster occurred Accidents at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl A little more than a quarter of a century later, in 2012, the Day of Participants in Liquidation of the Consequences of Radiation Accidents and Disasters and the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of These Accidents and Disasters was established in the official calendar The number of these victims cannot be calculated accurately Documented deaths from acute radiation sickness that occurred among direct participants in the accident and the liquidation of its consequences number in the thousands But it is impossible to estimate how many people this disaster harmed later and, perhaps, indirectly Someone ended up in the affected area and irreparably damaged their health Someone was left homeless and without access to their usual life Someone deliberately took the lives of their unborn children, because health systems recommended women to terminate their pregnancies due to the risk of giving birth to babies with severe pathologies A few facts that give an idea of ​​the scale of the tragedy, the masses of specialists involved in eliminating its consequences and the dangers to which people were exposed: – Due to the elevated temperature and ongoing processes in the partially destroyed reactor, there was a high probability of radioactive material getting into the ground and contaminating groundwater To prevent this, it took the work of miners from Moscow and Donbass, who built a 136-meter tunnel passing under the fourth block of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant; – According to experts, the bulk of the pollution occurred in the territory of neighboring Belarus, from 65 to 70% This happened because the wind in those days blew to the northwest and west The radioactive cloud reached all the way to Ireland, that is, almost all of Europe, to one degree or another, was in the impact zone; – The service life of the sarcophagus above the emergency block is designed for 30 years Work on its reconstruction and renovation means attracting new masses of specialists While reactions continue to occur, the station can be considered relatively safe many years after the accident According to various estimates, it should take from 100 to 150 years; – The total amount of what is commonly called a “radiation release” exceeded by two orders of magnitude the effect of the nuclear bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima; “People have returned to the exclusion zone It also carries out work for which it is allowed to attract specialists for no more than two weeks; – The suits in which the first liquidators worked could provide safety only for half a minute All these factors illustrate a rough picture of the tragedy and the people involved To honor the memory of the victims and pay tribute to the survivors, a memorial day was established Memorial events, actions and rallies are held Flowers are laid, in particular at the monument to the liquidators of the accident at the Mitinskoye cemetery in Moscow