Historian Lavinia Betea talked on the Daily summary program, about the danger still hovering over Europe, 30 years after the worst nuclear accident in history: the explosion at Chernobyl.
Reactor number 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded on April 26, 1986. The nuclear accident, the worst in history, caused the instant death of 31 people, but the total number of victims could be between several hundred thousand and millions, experts cited by international media note.
"The Soviets, the Russians and the government in Kiev covered the place, what was originally called a fire with a platform built to last 30 years. Today marks 30 years, "said Lavinia Betea, pointing out that you can buy from Kiev tickets to visit the still highly contaminated area surrounding the former nuclear power plants.
The power of the explosion, 400 times greater than the Hiroshima
Radioactive particles from the Chernobyl disaster still get into the atmosphere today, even if work has been done for years to remove these harmful effects, a footage by the Premiere program with Carmen Avram said.
Immediately after the explosion, a radioactive cloud hovered over Ukraine and, then, it got to Belarus, Poland and Romania. Eight tons of radioactive fuel arrived in the atmosphere. There were tons of dirt that had been buried somewhere, and people were exposed to strong radiation.
Transcript of the discussion between Nicolae Ceausescu and the authorities about Chernobyl
Historian Lavinia Betea stated on Antena 3, that nearly a week after the explosion at Chernobyl, on „1 May Labor Day “, Nicolae Ceaușescu convened the Executive Political Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, in an emergency meeting to discuss the disaster’s effects over Romania.
Following this meeting, where Ceausescu expressed concern, it was decided to inform the population, but without generating panic.
Images kept secret by the communists. The story of the first photographer who arrived at Chernobyl
Igor Kostin was the first photographer who captured the moment after the Chernobyl reactor explosion.
Once there, he went aboard a helicopter where he "shot" the pic that made him famous around the world, with the plant blackened by the explosion, captured from atop.