Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day: All you need to know; it's role in Russia-Ukraine war

On April 26th every year, International Chernobyl Remembrance Day commemorates the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. It is regarded as the world's worst nuclear disaster. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion resulted in a radioactive cloud that blanketed wide swaths of the former Soviet Union, including countries like Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Around 8.4 million people in the three nations were exposed to radiation as a result of the incident. The Soviet administration did not seek international aid until 1990. However, after their proposal, the United Nations passed Resolution 45/190, which called for international cooperation to address and minimize the Chernobyl disaster's impacts.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted a new resolution on December 8, 2016, designating April 26 as International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day to provide help to communities and territories still suffering from the disaster's long-term repercussions. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, which was built in 1977, produced power for the Soviet Union. The plant had a partial meltdown of reactor 1 in 1982, which caused some damage and took a few months to rebuild. This occurrence was not disclosed until after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Chernobyl's role in the Russia-Ukraine war

Presently, when Russia and Ukraine are in the midst of the war, Chernobyl was used as a strategy as in the early hours of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, tens of thousands of Russian tanks and troops rumbled into the forested Chernobyl exclusion zone, churning up highly contaminated soil from the site of the 1986 accident. For more than a month, Russian soldiers camped on the ground near the huge structure built to contain radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear plant. The Russians finally left the region after a month. 

A power outage occurred at the plant on March 9th, 2022 but there were no reports of radiation, which compelled the plant to rely on diesel generators to maintain the essential operation of circulating water for cooling the spent fuel rods. Rebecca Harms, former president of the Greens party in the European Parliament and a frequent visitor to Chornobyl, Russia's invasion is the first time it has been part of a nation's war strategy, according to AP News.

Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant attacked

On the other hand, Russian missiles flew over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which is Europe's largest nuclear power plant on Tuesday. Energoatom, which is a nuclear power company issued a warning about the dangers posed by Russia's war, stating that cruise missiles flew over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station and killed at least one person.

Image: AP