CHERNOBYL, Ukraine — Ukrainians paid homage Wednesday to the victims of the Chernobyl disaster while still grappling for ways to live with the legacy of the world’s worst nuclear accident.
Arriving by helicopter at the shuttered Chernobyl nuclear power plant for commemorations of the catastrophe’s 20th anniversary, President Viktor Yushchenko said Chernobyl should be transformed into a beacon of hope, and he urged that nuclear energy not be feared.
There is intense disagreement over the health, environmental and social tolls two decades after the electricity-generating plant’s Reactor No. 4 exploded during a predawn test on April 26, 1986, spewing radioactive clouds over the western Soviet Union and northern Europe.
Thirty-one people died within the first two months from illnesses caused by radioactivity. A report from the U.N. health agency estimated last week that about 9,300 people will die from cancers caused by Chernobyl’s radiation.
