The Chernobyl disaster occurred April 26, 1986 with the explosion of reactor number 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union), near the border with Belarus. Following the explosion, the central raised clouds of radioactive material that reached the ' Eastern Europe and Scandinavia as well as the western part of the USSR. Vast areas were close to the central heavily contaminated necessitating the evacuation and resettlement in other areas of approximately 336,000 people. The republics, now separate, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia are still burdened by high costs of decontamination and the high incidence of tumors and malformations on the inhabitants of the affected area.
... "Studies show that 34,499 people took part in the cleanup of Chernobyl have died of cancer after the catastrophe," said Nikolai Omelyanetes, deputy head of the National Commission for Radiation Protection of Ukraine, also the second Nikolai the infant mortality rate has increased from 20 to 30%.
continues on http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disastro_di_Chernobyl
