Chernobyl: A grim reminder to all those nuclear protagonists - Moneylife Personal Finance site and magazine

Around two million people have been hurt by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster that took place 26 years ago. “The Chernobyl disaster underscored that mankind must be extra careful in using nuclear technologies,” Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovych said. Is India listening?

The impact of Chernobyl nuclear disaster we see today is not just the exclusion zone around the destroyed reactor, but enormous radioactive contamination still observed in the now independent states of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. There are vast territories in Russia’s Bryansk Region where the levels of background radiation are still too high for people to live safely in the area. Ironically, Russia, one of the countries most severely affected by Chernobyl, prefers to ignore the immense renewable energy potential and still placing its bets on more nuclearpower plants.