Chernobyl veterans ask Putin for treatment help
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Veterans of the desperate efforts to contain the Chernobyl nuclear disaster two decades ago pleaded with President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday for help treating the lingering effects of the accident.
Thanks to their heroic efforts to contain the disaster at the power station on April 26, 1986, the Soviet Union managed to build a concrete “sarcophagus” over its devastated fourth reactor, but not before it sent radiation across Europe.
Some of those sent to tackle the disaster died of acute radiation sickness, and many developed cancer and other long-term illnesses. Psychological problems have also been recorded in those involved.
Estimates of the number of deaths vary widely. The World Health Organisation says 9,000 people have died due to the disaster, while the environmental group Greenpeace predicts an eventual death toll of 93,000.
Praskovya Britskaya, a member of the Moscow Union of Invalids of Chernobyl, took the opportunity of a medal ceremony at the Kremlin to hand Putin an appeal from a group of survivors and family members to create a treatment centre.
“We sent a draft proposal to the government and to you but we never received an answer,” she told Putin at the ceremony to honour Chernobyl “liquidators,” also known as “Chernobyltsy.”
“And on behalf of these people, I am handing you this appeal personally, because today I have this chance,” said Britskaya, to applause from the assembled veterans.
Many of the firefighters who arrived at the scene of the disaster are still alive despite having received vast doses of radiation. But many Chernobyltsy—some 600,000 people in all—feel their sacrifice has been forgotten.
PENSIONS CUT
Post-Soviet reforms have abolished or reduced the value of pensions and benefits received by the workers, who did everything from carting scattered nuclear fuel by hand back into the reactor to building a concrete shield over the ruined plant.
Putin honoured their bravery and promised he would look into setting up a treatment centre—something that Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has also said is necessary.
“These people who worked there did not think of themselves, they understood that the disaster had to be stopped, whatever the cost,” Putin said.
While mingling with medal recipients later, he pledged to meet the health minister to look into the proposed rehabilitation centre.
“We will definitely work on this question. I will task the government with doing it as soon as possible. We will think about how to solve this and not just give promises,” he told them as they stood around him in the ornate Kremlin hall.
State television later showed Britskaya, Putin and Health Minister Mikhail Zurabov meeting to discuss the issue.
Ukraine, which houses the shut-down nuclear power station, has appealed to the West for help in building a new sarcophagus over the shattered reactor. It has said cleaning up the disaster swallowed 10 percent of Ukraine’s budget for many years.
Ironically, since humans have been evacuated from around Chernobyl, the area has become a vast nature reserve where some rare animals have become common.
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