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Chernobyl

Efrem Lukatsky/The Associated Press file photo
In this Nov.10, 2000 file photo an investigator points at the place of the April 26, 1986 explosion in reactor No 4 in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Twenty-five years ago, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded in Ukraine, spreading radioactive material across much of the Northern Hemisphere.

Chernobyl donors conference falls short of goal

Last updated Tuesday, April 19, 2011 - 12:28pm

KIEV, Ukraine -- A donors conference seeking 740 million ($1.1 billion) to clean up the Chernobyl disaster site fell well short of its goal Tuesday, but officials remained optimistic that money will be found to make the world's worst nuclear accident site environmentally safe.

Pledges from nations and organizations at the conference totaled about 550 million ($785 million), along with 29 million ($41 million) from Ukraine.

The money is being sought to complete the construction of a gargantuan long-term shelter to cover the nuclear reactor that exploded April 26, 1986, and to build a facility to store waste from the plant's three other decommissioned reactors.

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C. Aluka Berry/The State/MCT
Russian scientist, Natalia Manzurova (left), shows photos taken after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster during a discussion and presentation at the USC green quad, Learning Center for Sustainable Futures, March 28, 2011, in Columbia, South Carolina. Russian anti- nuclear activist, Natalia Mironova (bottom), and USC student, Irina Vasilyeva, who is also from Russia, look on.

Scientist assigned to Chernobyl cleanup recalls horrors

McClatchy Newspapers, Sammy Fretwell

Last updated Tuesday, April 5, 2011 - 11:30am

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The horrors of the world's worst nuclear accident greeted Natalia Manzurova when she arrived in the Ukraine after the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl.

Assigned by the Soviet government to study the accident's fallout, Manzurova visited an abandoned nursery school and found a bony dog sleeping on a child's cot. Its sagging, bleeding skin showed evidence of radiation burns. Through clouded eyes, the dog looked sadly at her.

"It loved children so much, that even when they had been evacuated, it stayed in a child's bed," Manzurova said during a visit to the University of South Carolina last week to remember the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident.

The sight of the sickened dog is one she can't forget, but one example of how a nuclear power accident can affect life, she said. And it's why the world should take care to avoid another Chernobyl, Manzurova said.

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