Ukraine: Chernobyl nuclear disaster marks 33 years

<p>By Can Erozden</p> <p>ANKARA (AA) – The catastrophic Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, marked its 33rd anniversary on Friday.</p> <p>On April 26, 1986, a sudden surge of power during a reactor systems test destroyed unit 4 of the nuclear power station at Chernobyl, some 110 kilometers (68.3 miles) from Ukraine’s capital, Kiev.</p> <p>&quot;#FBF (Flash Back Friday) to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster 33 years ago. The women, men and children affected by radioactive contamination must never be forgotten,&quot; the UN said on Twitter, designating April 26 the International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day.</p> <p>The UN said on its website that 31 people were killed in the immediate aftermath of the accident, while millions more were affected. </p> <p>According to the official numbers, roughly 8.4 million people in the former Soviet territories of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine got the largest exposure to radiation in the form of a cloud.</p> <p>Later research into the accident showed that the radioactive clouds reached as far as the U.S. and China.</p> <p>The UN also said that 155,000 square kilometers of these three countries were contaminated, equal to almost half of Italy, and over 400,000 people were displaced.</p> <p>Fear of spreading radiation gripped many in Turkey’s Black Sea region, the area nearest Ukraine, but authorities reassured the public that there was no cause for concern.</p>