The United Nations says persistent and serious long-term consequences remain more than 30 years after the explosion and fire at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
The warning came as the U.N. marks International Chornobyl Disaster Remembrance Day on April 26 – the 34th anniversary of the accident that spread a radioactive cloud over large parts of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.
More than 1,000 firefighters were working on April 26 to try to put out brushfires and forest fires that have been burning the past three weeks within the 30-kilometer exclusion zone around the plant – raising concerns about the potential release of radioactive particles into the air.