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April 26 marked the 29th anniversary of the 1986 explosion and meltdown of a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Two days later, firefighters were battling the largest forest fire in the “exclusion zone” around the plant in 23 years, shown above. In February, scientists had warned that large amounts of dangerous isotopes remain in the trees near Chernobyl, and wildfires “pose a high risk of redistributing radioactivity.”
Ukrainian officials said May 2 that the fire, which had spread to within 12 miles of the plant, had been extinguished. The Chernobyl disaster highlighted the brutality and contempt for working people of the Soviet government in Moscow — from the decision to build the plant with no containment structure to the deadly delay in evacuating the area to the rulers’ indifference to the lives of Ukrainian “liquidators,” workers who helped contain and clean up the disaster. In strong contrast was revolutionary Cuba’s offer of medical care to all who sought it, free of charge. More than 25,000 Ukrainians, overwhelmingly children, were treated at the specially prepared Tarará medical facility outside Havana. A hastily built concrete shell around the still-radioactive reactor is deteriorating. A massive new containment structure is under construction, but funding to finish the project remains shaky. Inset, workers building the new containment shell participate in April 26 memorial ceremony commemorating the disaster. |
| — NAOMI CRAINE |