International Day of Remembrance for Victims of Radiation Accidents and Disasters. Class hour "Day of Remembrance for Disaster Victims" Day of Remembrance of the Chernobyl Tragedy

It was proclaimed by a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly on December 8, 2016. In it, the General Assembly noted “the serious, long-term consequences of the Chernobyl disaster still being felt, three decades later, as well as the ongoing needs of affected local communities and territories”, and invited “all Member States, relevant agencies of the United Nations system and other international organizations, as well as civil society, to celebrate this day."

On April 26, 1986, the largest man-made disaster of the twentieth century in terms of the scale of damage and consequences occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (ChNPP), located on the territory of Ukraine, 15 kilometers from the city of Chernobyl, Kiev region.

On April 26, at 01:23:40 Moscow time, an explosion occurred at the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant during design tests of one of the safety systems. As a result, the core and the entire upper part of the reactor building were completely destroyed, the deaerator shelf and the turbine room were severely damaged, and all barriers and safety systems were destroyed. The explosions and resulting fire were accompanied by the release of enormous radioactivity. Millions of Curies were released into the environment every day, and this process continued until May 6, 1986, after which the release dropped sharply (thousands of times) and subsequently continued to decrease.

As a result of the accident, the territories of many countries were exposed to radioactive contamination. The specific nature of the release led to the widespread distribution of radioactivity throughout the Northern Hemisphere, mainly across the European continent. Radioactivity carried by contaminated clouds from Chernobyl was detected not only in northern and southern Europe, but also in Canada, Japan and the United States. Only the southern hemisphere remained uncontaminated.

In Europe, a territory with a total area of ​​207.5 thousand square kilometers was significantly contaminated, of which about 60 thousand square kilometers were located outside the former USSR. The most contaminated territories were Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, and to a lesser extent - other European countries - Sweden, Finland, Austria, Norway, Italy, Greece, Romania, Switzerland, Poland, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, etc.

In Russia, more than 59 thousand square kilometers of territory of 14 constituent entities were exposed to radioactive contamination, including more than 2.3 million hectares of agricultural land and more than 1.5 million hectares of forest areas.

The Chernobyl accident affected the lives of millions of people in one way or another. The risk group includes Chernobyl NPP personnel, participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident, evacuated people and the population of the affected areas. Almost 8.4 million people in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine were exposed to radiation, hundreds of thousands of them from contaminated areas. Acute radiation sickness was recorded in 134 people (Chernobyl NPP technical staff and fire department personnel involved in extinguishing the fire). Of these, 28 people died in the first months after the incident. Three more died in the explosion at the fourth power unit.

Paying tribute to the memory of the victims, the heads of state of the Commonwealth of Independent States at the summit in June 2001 decided to appeal to member states of the United Nations (UN) to declare April 26 the International Day of Remembrance for Victims of Radiation Accidents and Disasters.

On December 17, 2003, the UN General Assembly supported the decision of the Council of Heads of State of the CIS to proclaim April 26 as the International Day of Remembrance for Victims of Radiation Accidents and Disasters in the Commonwealth member states.

The disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant caused serious long-term radioecological, medical, demographic and socio-psychological consequences, and had a negative impact on the course of socio-economic development of the territories.

United Nations organizations and major non-governmental organizations and foundations are providing assistance to revive the affected areas. They have carried out over 230 different projects in such areas as health care, nuclear safety, socio-psychological rehabilitation, economic recovery, environment and production of clean products and information.

Despite large-scale emergency measures to eliminate and mitigate the consequences of the disaster, taken both immediately after it and in subsequent years, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant continues to remain a potential source of danger.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Ecuadorian authorities have denied Julian Assange asylum at the London embassy. The founder of WikiLeaks was detained by British police, and this has already been called the biggest betrayal in the history of Ecuador. Why are they taking revenge on Assange and what awaits him?

Australian programmer and journalist Julian Assange became widely known after the website WikiLeaks, which he founded, published secret documents from the US State Department in 2010, as well as materials related to military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But it was quite difficult to find out who the police, supporting by the arms, were leading out of the building. Assange had grown a beard and looked nothing like the energetic man he had previously appeared in photographs.

According to Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno, Assange was denied asylum due to his repeated violations of international conventions.

He is expected to remain in custody at a central London police station until he appears at Westminster Magistrates' Court.

Why is the President of Ecuador accused of treason?

Former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa called the current government's decision the biggest betrayal in the country's history. “What he (Moreno - editor’s note) did is a crime that humanity will never forget,” Correa said.

London, on the contrary, thanked Moreno. The British Foreign Office believes that justice has triumphed. The representative of the Russian diplomatic department, Maria Zakharova, has a different opinion. “The hand of “democracy” is squeezing the throat of freedom,” she noted. The Kremlin expressed hope that the rights of the arrested person will be respected.

Ecuador sheltered Assange because the former president had left-of-center views, criticized U.S. policies and welcomed WikiLeaks' release of secret documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even before the Internet activist needed asylum, he managed to personally meet Correa: he interviewed him for the Russia Today channel.

However, in 2017, the government in Ecuador changed, and the country set a course towards rapprochement with the United States. The new president called Assange “a stone in his shoe” and immediately made it clear that his stay on the embassy premises would not be prolonged.

According to Correa, the moment of truth came at the end of June last year, when US Vice President Michael Pence arrived in Ecuador for a visit. Then everything was decided. “You have no doubt: Lenin is simply a hypocrite. He has already agreed with the Americans on the fate of Assange. And now he is trying to make us swallow the pill, saying that Ecuador is supposedly continuing the dialogue,” Correa said in an interview with the Russia Today channel.

How Assange made new enemies

The day before his arrest, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristin Hrafnsson said that Assange was under total surveillance. “WikiLeaks uncovered a large-scale spy operation against Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy,” he noted. According to him, cameras and voice recorders were placed around Assange, and the information received was transferred to the Donald Trump administration.

Hrafnsson clarified that Assange was going to be expelled from the embassy a week earlier. This did not happen only because WikiLeaks released this information. A high-ranking source told the portal about the plans of the Ecuadorian authorities, but the head of the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry, Jose Valencia, denied the rumors.

Assange's expulsion was preceded by the corruption scandal surrounding Moreno. In February, WikiLeaks published a package of INA Papers, which traced the operations of the offshore company INA Investment, founded by the brother of the Ecuadorian leader. Quito said it was a conspiracy between Assange and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and former Ecuadorian leader Rafael Correa to overthrow Moreno.

In early April, Moreno complained about Assange's behavior at Ecuador's London mission. “We must protect the life of Mr. Assange, but he has already crossed all boundaries in terms of violating the agreement that we came to with him,” the president said. “This does not mean that he cannot speak freely, but he cannot lie and hack.” ". At the same time, back in February last year it became known that Assange at the embassy was deprived of the opportunity to interact with the outside world, in particular, his Internet access was cut off.

Why Sweden stopped its prosecution of Assange

At the end of last year, Western media, citing sources, reported that Assange would be charged in the United States. This was never officially confirmed, but it was because of Washington’s position that Assange had to take refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy six years ago.

In May 2017, Sweden stopped investigating two rape cases in which the portal’s founder was accused. Assange demanded compensation from the country's government for legal costs in the amount of 900 thousand euros.

Earlier, in 2015, Swedish prosecutors also dropped three charges against him due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

Where did the investigation into the rape case lead?

Assange arrived in Sweden in the summer of 2010, hoping to receive protection from American authorities. But he was investigated for rape. In November 2010, a warrant was issued for his arrest in Stockholm, and Assange was put on the international wanted list. He was detained in London, but was soon released on bail of 240 thousand pounds.

In February 2011, a British court decided to extradite Assange to Sweden, after which a number of successful appeals followed for the WikiLeaks founder.

British authorities placed him under house arrest before deciding whether to extradite him to Sweden. Breaking his promise to the authorities, Assange asked for asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy, ​​which was granted to him. Since then, the UK has had its own claims against the WikiLeaks founder.

What awaits Assange now?

The man was re-arrested on a US extradition request for publishing classified documents, police said. At the same time, Deputy Head of the British Foreign Ministry Alan Duncan said that Assange would not be sent to the United States if he faced the death penalty there.

In the UK, Assange is likely to appear in court on the afternoon of April 11. This is stated on the WikiLeaks Twitter page. British authorities are likely to seek a maximum sentence of 12 months, the man's mother said, citing his lawyer.

At the same time, Swedish prosecutors are considering reopening the rape investigation. Attorney Elizabeth Massey Fritz, who represented the victim, will seek this.

April 26, 1986... This date will be remembered by several more generations of Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians as the day and year when the terrible thing happened. When all this happened, perhaps even the most experienced experts did not fully and fully understand what awaited us all subsequently.

The disaster of April 26, 1986 resulted in thousands of deaths and illnesses, contaminated forests, poisoned water and soil, and mutations of plants and animals. Among other things, a thirty-kilometer exclusion zone has appeared on the map of Ukraine, travel to the territory of which is possible only with a special permit.

This article is aimed not only at once again reminding readers what happened on April 26, 1986, but also at looking at what happened, as they say, from different angles. Now, it seems, it is no secret to anyone that in the modern world there are more and more often those who are willing to pay a lot of money to go on an excursion to these places, and some former residents, having never settled down in other regions, often return to their ghostly and abandoned cities.

Brief summary of events

Almost 30 years ago, namely on April 26, 1986, the largest nuclear accident in the world occurred on the territory of what is now Ukraine, the consequences of which are felt by the planet to this day.

The nuclear reactor of the fourth power unit exploded at a power plant in the city of Chernobyl. A huge amount of deadly radioactive substances were simultaneously released into the air.

It has now been calculated that in the first three months alone, starting from April 26, 1986, 31 people literally died from radiation on the spot. Later, 134 people were sent to specialized clinics for intensive treatment for radiation sickness, and another 80 died in agony from infection of the skin, blood and respiratory tract.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant (1986, April 26 and the following days) needed workers more than ever. More than 600 thousand people took part in the liquidation of the accident, most of whom were military personnel.

Perhaps the most dangerous consequence of the incident was the huge release into the environment of deadly radioactive substances, namely isotopes of plutonium, uranium, iodine and cesium, strontium and radioactive dust itself. The radiation plume covered not only a huge part of the USSR, but also Eastern Europe and the Scandinavian countries, but most of all on April 26, 1986 it affected the Belarusian and Ukrainian SSR.

A lot of international experts were involved in investigating the causes of the accident, but even to this day no one knows exactly the true causes of what happened.

Distribution area

After the accident, a so-called “dead” zone of 30 km had to be designated around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Hundreds of settlements were destroyed almost to the ground or buried under tons of earth using heavy equipment. If we consider the sphere with confidence, we can say that Ukraine at that time lost five million hectares of fertile soil.

Before the accident, the reactor of the fourth power unit contained almost 190 tons of fuel, 30% of which was released into the environment during the explosion. In addition, at that time, various radioactive isotopes accumulated during operation were in the active phase. It was they, according to experts, who posed the greatest danger.

More than 200,000 sq. km of surrounding lands were contaminated with radiation. The deadly radiation spread like an aerosol, gradually settling on the surface of the earth. Pollution of territories then mainly depended only on those regions where it rained on April 26, 1986 and the next few weeks. Very severely affected were those regions.

Who is to blame for what happened?

In April 1987, a court hearing took place in Chernobyl. One of the main culprits at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was recognized as the director of the plant, a certain V. Bryukhanov, who initially neglected basic safety rules. Subsequently, this person deliberately underestimated the level of radiation and did not put into effect a plan for the evacuation of workers and the local population.

Also, along the way, facts were discovered of gross neglect of their official duties on April 26, 1986 on the part of the chief engineer of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant N. Fomin and his deputy A. Dyatlov. All of them were sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The head of the very shift on which the accident occurred (B. Rogozhkin) was sentenced to another five years, A. Kovalenko, his deputy, was sentenced to three years, and Yu. Laushkin, the state inspector of Gosatomenergonadzor, was sentenced to two years.

At first glance, it may seem that this is quite cruel, but if all these people had shown great caution when working at such a dangerous enterprise as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the disaster of April 26, 1986 would hardly have happened.

Notification and evacuation of the population

The expert commission argues that after the accident, the first step should have been to immediately evacuate the population, but no one took responsibility for making the necessary decisions. If the opposite had happened then, there could have been tens, or even hundreds of times fewer human casualties.

In practice, it turned out that people knew nothing about what had happened the whole day. On April 26, 1986, someone was working on a personal plot, someone was preparing the city for the upcoming events. Kindergarten children were walking on the street, and schoolchildren, as if nothing had happened, were doing physical education in what they thought was fresh air.

Work to evacuate the population began only at night, when an official order was issued to prepare for evacuation. On April 27, a directive was announced on the complete evacuation of the city, scheduled for 14.00.

Thus, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the disaster on April 26, 1986, which deprived many thousands of Ukrainians of their homes, turned the modest satellite town of Pripyat into a terrible ghost with devastated parks and squares and dead, deserted streets.

Panic and provocations

When the first rumors about the accident spread, part of the population decided to leave the city on their own. Already on April 26, 1986, towards the afternoon, many women in panic and despair, picking up their babies in their arms, literally ran along the road away from the city.

Everything would be fine, but this was done through the forest, the dose of pollution of which was actually many times higher than all permissible indicators. And the road... According to eyewitnesses, the asphalt surface glowed with some strange neon hue, although they tried to pour it abundantly with water mixed with some white solution unknown to the common man.

It is very unfortunate that serious decisions to rescue and evacuate the population were not made on time.

And finally, only a few years later it became clear that the intelligence services of the Soviet Union were aware of the procurement of three tons of meat and fifteen tons of butter in the territories directly affected by the Chernobyl tragedy on April 26, 1986. Despite this, they decided to reprocess radioactive products by adding relatively pure components to them. In accordance with the decision made, this radioactive meat and butter was distributed to many large factories in the country.

The KGB also knew for sure that during the construction of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, defective equipment from Yugoslavia was used, it was also familiar with various kinds of miscalculations in the design of the station, delamination of the foundation and the presence of cracks in the walls...

What was going on anyway? Trying to prevent more grief

At about half past two at night in the city of Chernobyl (1986, April 26), the local fire department received a signal about a fire. The duty guard responded to the call and almost immediately transmitted a signal about a fire of high complexity.

Upon arrival, the special team saw that the roof of the turbine room and the huge reactor hall were on fire. By the way, today it has been established that when extinguishing that terrible fire, the guys who were working in the reactor hall suffered the most.

Only at 6 o'clock in the morning was the fire completely extinguished.

In total, 14 vehicles and 69 employees were involved. In terms of overalls, the people performing such an important mission had only a canvas robe, a helmet and mittens. The men extinguished the fire without gas masks, since it was simply impossible to work in them at high temperatures.

Already at two o'clock in the morning the first victims of radiation appeared. People began to experience severe vomiting and general weakness, and also experienced a so-called “nuclear tan.” They say that for some, the skin of their hands was removed along with their mittens.

Desperate firefighters did everything possible to prevent the fire from reaching the third block and beyond. The station personnel began extinguishing local fires in different rooms of the station and took all necessary measures to prevent a hydrogen explosion. These actions helped prevent an even greater man-made disaster.

Biological consequences for all humanity

Ionizing radiation, when it hits all living organisms, has a destructive biological effect.

Radiation radiation leads to the destruction of biological matter, mutation, and changes in the structure of organ tissue. Such irradiation contributes to the development of various types of cancer, disruption of vital functions of the body, changes and decay of DNA and, as a result, leads to death.

A ghost town called Pripyat

For several years following the man-made disaster, this settlement aroused the interest of various kinds of specialists. They came here en masse, trying to measure and analyze the level of the contaminated area.

However, in the 90s. Pripyat began to attract more and more attention from scientists interested in environmental changes in the environment, as well as issues of transformation of the natural zone of the city, which was completely left without anthropogenic influence.

Many Ukrainian scientific centers conducted assessments of changes in flora and fauna in the city.

Stalkers of the Chernobyl zone

First of all, it is worth noting that stalkers are people who penetrate into the exclusion zone by hook or by crook. Chernobyl extreme sports fans are conditionally divided into two categories, distinguished by their appearance, slang used, photographs and prepared reports. The first are curious, the second are ideological.

Agree, now you can really find a lot of information in the media

Over the last century, humanity has made tremendous progress in technological development. A huge number of industrial facilities were built, including using nuclear energy. Unfortunately, sometimes accidents occur on them, leading to serious damage and loss of life. To honor their memory, a special date has been set during which annual themed events are held.

When is it celebrated?

The International Day of Remembrance for Victims of Radiation Accidents and Disasters is celebrated on April 26 around the world. It was established at the CIS summit in September 2003 on the initiative of former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. The idea was supported by the UN, calling for its resolution to celebrate it in all member countries of the organization. In 2020, the event is celebrated for the 17th time at the international level.

In Russia, it has been celebrated since 1993 as the Day of Remembrance for those killed in radiation accidents and disasters. On April 4, 2012, the government of the Russian Federation adopted a resolution changing the name of the date to the Day of Participants in Elimination of the Consequences of Radiation Accidents and Disasters and the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of These Accidents and Disasters.

Who's celebrating

The Day of the Chernobyl Tragedy is a tribute to all veterans and liquidators of man-made accidents who, risking their own lives and health, eliminated the threats and consequences of disasters: firefighters, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the police and other services.

history of the holiday

The date was not chosen by chance. It was on this day that a terrible disaster occurred, which claimed many lives and left its mark on the fates of millions of people - the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It especially affected Ukraine, where the power plant was located, as well as the nearby territories of Russia and Belarus.

As a result of the destruction of one of the reactors, a large amount of radioactive elements were released into the air, which were carried by the wind over a distance of more than 160 thousand square kilometers. The territories of the cities of Pripyat and Chernobyl suffered the greatest damage, as a result of which a decision was made to completely evacuate the population living in a 30-kilometer zone from the damaged reactor. Nuclear power plant employees received the highest dose of radiation; more than 30 of them died from radiation sickness within a few months.

The fire that arose after the explosion was extinguished by local firefighters, as well as auxiliary teams from Kyiv and neighboring areas. The work was carried out without special protective suits, people received gigantic doses of radiation, practically sacrificing their lives. The consequences of the accident are being eliminated to this day: a concrete sarcophagus was built over the destroyed reactor, and work was carried out to clean up the areas from dangerous radioactive elements. All these events were carried out jointly by several ministries - the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the army, and the police. Over the course of several years, more than 600 thousand people worked in the most contaminated 30-kilometer zone (exclusion zone). Subsequently, they all received the status of accident liquidator and certain benefits, but the mortality rate among them was tens of times higher than normal.

Many residents of villages and hamlets from the exclusion zone, despite the bans, returned to their homes after some time. The high background radiation did not have a detrimental effect on them; some continue to live there to this day.

International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly (resolution 71/125) and is celebrated on April 26. It was on this day in 1986 that an explosion occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, leading to a man-made disaster.

As a result of the accident, the territories of 17 European countries with a total area of ​​207.5 thousand square meters were exposed to radioactive contamination. km, of which about 60 thousand sq. km is located outside the former USSR. The territories of Ukraine (37.63 thousand sq. km), Belarus (43.5 thousand sq. km) and the European part of Russia (59.3 thousand sq. km) were significantly polluted. Almost 8.4 million people in the three affected countries were exposed to radiation.

Fire brigade workers were among the first to take part in eliminating the accident. The signal about a fire at the nuclear power plant was received on April 26, 1986 at 01:28. By the morning, 240 personnel of the Kyiv Regional Fire Department were in the accident zone, and by 06:35 the fire at Unit 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was completely extinguished.

As a result of the reactor explosion and over the next few days, a large amount of radioactive substances was released into the atmosphere, including cesium-137, strontium-90, iodine-131 and radioisotopes of plutonium. The complete decay of the last radioactive element (plutonium-239) to the state of natural material will occur only in 26486 (24500 years after the accident).

Experts are still eliminating the consequences of the largest man-made disaster in the history of the peaceful atom. Over three decades, scientists have written thousands of articles, dozens of scientific reports, and conducted hundreds of studies.

More than 30 years have passed since the man-made disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, but millions of people continue to live in contaminated areas. The Polesie State Radiation-Ecological Reserve, created in 1988 on the lands most contaminated as a result of the disaster, is inhabited by wild animals. The reserve has become home to representatives of more than 40 species of animals and birds listed in the Red Book, including the egret, black stork and gray crane.

Global nuclear energy continues to develop rapidly. The world's top ten countries produce more than 80% of all nuclear electricity. Large-scale nuclear energy development programs have been adopted in developing countries.

Chernobyl today is an exclusion zone, and the name of the city is a memory of the tragedy, of how a peaceful atom ceased to be peaceful, and black reality became a reality.