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Fallout from Chernobyl disaster still a 'very important challenge' for Belarus

Fallout from Chernobyl disaster still a 'very important challenge' for Belarus

Introduction:

The explosions at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exposed around 8.4 million people to life-threatening radiation, and the three countries affected are still living with the consequences today.

In an interview with UN News to mark the anniversary of the disaster, which took place on 26 April 1986, the Permanent Representative of Belarus to the United Nations in Geneva, Yury Ambrazevich, said that around 70 per cent of the radioactive fallout spread across his country, affecting some 2.2 million.

Nearly a quarter of the country’s territory suffered contamination, and he well-remembers how it disrupted family life as a boy, and government warnings not to pick fruit or fish in contaminated lakes.

The UN marked International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day on Thursday, and Mr Ambrazevich told Sandra Miller that it still represented “a very important challenge” for Belarus.

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The explosions at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exposed around 8.4 million people to life-threatening radiation, and the three countries affected are still living with the consequences today.

In an interview with UN News to mark the anniversary of the disaster, which took place on 26 April 1986, the Permanent Representative of Belarus to the United Nations in Geneva, Yury Ambrazevich, told Sandra Miller that around 70 per cent of the radioactive fallout spread across his country, affecting some 2.2 million.

Audio Credit
Sandra Miller, United Nations - Geneva
Audio
8'25"
Photo Credit
UN Photo/Oleg Veklenko