Subject: April 26th, 1986 - Chernobyl

What memories do you have about the biggest nuclear catastrophe in history: Chernobyl?
How did the American or Western media deal with it?

I was nine years old. I live in Hungary which was part of the communist bloc at that time and also one of the neighbours of the Ukraine. I remember that people were told what not to eat. We were told not to eat vegetables, fruit, milk etc. At the end Hungary was not that affected but it was better to be cautious.

I have found an animation which shows how Europe was affected:

http://www.reak.bme.hu/csernobil/kepek/ch_an.gif

According to a website I have found the average Hungarian carries an extra 0.3-0.4 mSv extra dose all his life as a result of Chernobyl (but even North Americans carry a 0.001 mSv extra dose as a result of this accident). Thank's God it is not much. The average natural dose everybody gets is 2-3 mSv a year. Also they say that in Hungary they didn't record an increase in cancer, leucemia or other diseases which could be related. That's in my home country.

But of course it was different in the Ukraine. Chernobyl is now a forbidden city. I have seen a film in that they showed that people were evacuated to Moscow (or Kiev - don't remember exactly) and they live now there in a suburb called "little Chernobyl". Almost noone is healthy there...

On this site you can find a lot of things about the accident. About the reasons, the sequence of events that led to the accident and about the consequences:

http://www.chernobyl.co.uk/