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April 26 2006 marks the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Award-winning Dutch photographer Robert Knoth has visited the area worst hit by radioactive fallout - Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia - to document the toxic legacy of Chernobyl and other nuclear accident sites of the former Soviet Union. The Fallout exhibition, which is free, runs from April 18 to May 14 at the Oxo Tower in London.

The United Nations Organization has launched a USD-2.5-million project designed to meet the priority information needs of the communities in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine affected by the Chornobyl nuclear accident. ADVERTISEMENT The information center of the United Nations Organization announced this in a statement. According to the statement, the project is a joint effort by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

I am writing this on April 26, 2009, the 23rd anniversary of the tragic and deadly explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The Chernobyl disaster is widely considered to be the biggest technological and industrial disaster the world has ever known. And I am remembering the 1979 meltdown at the nuclear plant on Three Mile Island, about 100 miles from where I currently sit. Today, about a block from my home, I can look to the west and see the cooling towers of the Limerick nuclear power plant sending a steady flow of steam into the sky. Each month, the power company Exelon, which operates the Limerick plant, conducts a siren test to ensure that the noisemakers are in good working order in case they need to notify the public of an emergency.

"An honour guard attends a ceremony marking the 21st anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 2007. Thirteen years after Canada and other nations pledged $768-million to render the destroyed nuclear reactor safe, the cost has ballooned to $2-billion and the job still isn't done Kiev - From Wednesday's Globe and Mail Published on Tuesday, Feb. 02, 2010 10:17PM EST Last updated on Friday, Feb. 05, 2010 3:19AM EST Almost a quarter-century after its explosion killed hundreds and shocked the world, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor still sits crumbling amid an uninhabitable wasteland in northern Ukraine, still emits surprising amounts of radiation, and still absorbs vast amounts of money. Much of that money, at least $71-million of it, has come from Canadian taxpayers, intended to pay for a project launched in 1997 under a pledge from leaders of the G-7 countries to enclose the reactor in a permanent, sealed sarcophagus."

Lithuania Thursday shut down its Soviet-era nuclear plant under an EU deal in a move set to drive up electricity prices amid an economic crisis and leave it counting on ex-master Moscow for power. "At 11:00 pm (2100 GMT) everything went offline. It all went according to plan," Viktor Sevaldin, director of the 26-year-old plant, told AFP by telephone. The plant, located in Visaginas in eastern Lithuania, provided 70 percent of the Baltic state's electricity. It gradually went offline from 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) Thursday, displaying its decreasing output on its website. It is similar to the one that exploded at Chernobyl in then-Soviet Ukraine in 1986, the world's worst nuclear accident.

Lithuania Thursday shut down its Soviet-era nuclear plant under an EU deal in a move set to drive up electricity prices amid an economic crisis and leave it counting on ex-master Moscow for power. "At 11:00 pm (2100 GMT) everything went offline. It all went according to plan," Viktor Sevaldin, director of the 26-year-old plant, told AFP by telephone. The plant, located in Visaginas in eastern Lithuania, provided 70 percent of the Baltic state's electricity. It gradually went offline from 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) Thursday, displaying its decreasing output on its website. It is similar to the one that exploded at Chernobyl in then-Soviet Ukraine in 1986, the world's worst nuclear accident.

"Children exposed to 137Caesium (137C) released from the Chernobyl disaster fallout show signs of breathing difficulties, according to research published online this week in Environmental Health Perspectives. The research adds changes in lung function to the list of health problems associated with long-term exposure to the radiation. "The long term prognosis of these children is poor," Erik Svendsen and colleagues write. "Some will probably develop significant respiratory problems as they age." Chernobyl was the most serious nuclear accident in history. One of the plant's reactors exploded in 1986, showering radioactive material across many European countries with parts of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine worst hit. The health of people living in these countries has been affected by the radiation, which is known to cause thyroid cancer, leukaemia, cataracts, and cardiovascular disease. More than twenty years after the event people living in some areas continue to be exposed to radioisotopes that linger in the environment through tainted water supplies and locally grown food. One of these is the Ukrainian farming district of Narodickesky, which lies 80km west of the nuclear power plant. The region experienced "considerable" radioactive fallout from the disaster leaving the soil in some areas heavily contaminated with 137C, according to the authors. "

"Doctors at the Children's Cancer Hospital in Minsk, Belarus and at the Vilne Hospital for Radiological Protection in Eastern Ukraine are telling international media that they are seeing what they have no doubt is a spike in cancer rates, mutations and blood diseases among their patients linked to the world's largest nuclear disaster at Chernobyl 24 years. Charles Digges, 11/01-2010 If the reports of the local doctors and researchers, many of who spoke to Bellona Web Monday and in interviews last week, prove to be true, they could stand over two decades' worth of research by the United Nations and affiliated organisations on its head, and cast a shadow over the research techniques that have thus far been employed. "

"Views from the Chernobyl exclusion zone twenty three years after the accident at the nuclear power plant. Communities, families and the land are still suffering after the power plant explosions in 1986. Pripyat, Ukraine. 04/06/2009. On 26 April 1986, the most serious accident in the history of the nuclear industry occurred at Unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former Ukrainian Republic of the Soviet Union. The Nuclear power plants were presented as being an achievement of Soviet engineers, where nuclear power was harnessed for peaceful projects. The slogan "PEACEFUL ATOM" was popular during those times. But, the explosions that rupture the Chernobyl reactor vessel and the consequent fire that continued for 10 days or so resulted in large amounts of radioactive materials being released into the environment."

"More than 25,000 persons affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine have been treated in Cuba in the last 20 years, reported Julio Medina, director of the Cuban health program for the victims of the disaster. The explosion of a reactor in the Chernobyl nuclear plant occurred on April 26, 1986 and affected around nine million persons in the former Soviet Union (USSR), reported IPS."

"In the Polish village of Klempicz, less than an hour from the German border, Lech Wojcieszynski is hoping to bring the first atomic reactor to his country, overcoming the Chernobyl disaster's legacy. "I remember Chernobyl very well, but how long ago was that?" said Wojcieszynski, a local entrepreneur who arranged meetings with residents and government officials responsible for nuclear policy. "Technology has moved on to a completely different level." Nuclear power is back in vogue in Eastern Europe 24 years after the meltdown at the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine, the worst nuclear accident in history, which blanketed the region with radioactive dust and halted development of atomic power. Klempicz is second on a list of 27 sites competing for the $11 billion project. A decision will be made at the end of the year in the country where burning coal supplies 95 percent of energy. "

"NEARLY a quarter of a century after the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in the Ukraine exploded and spewed radioactivity across the world, it has finally stopped making Scottish sheep too "hot" to eat. For the first time since the accident, levels of radioactive contamination in sheep on all Scottish farms dropped below safety limits last month, enabling the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to lift restrictions. Controls on the movement and sale of sheep have been in force since after the explosion in 1986. The Chernobyl reactor near Kiev scattered a massive cloud of radioactivity over Europe after it overheated, caught fire and ripped apart because of errors made by control room staff. It was the world's worst nuclear accident, and has been blamed for causing tens of thousands of deaths from cancers. Peat and grass in upland areas of Scotland were polluted with radioactive caesium-137 released by the reactor, blown across Europe and brought to ground by rain."

"A nuclear explosion was set off 37 years ago, near Krestishche village in Krasnograd district, Kharkiv Region. It was the first in Ukraine and probably the only one in the European part of the Soviet Union. Scientists had determined that a large gas condensate field in the area which was discovered in 1970 could hold up to 300 billion cubic meters of fuel. In 1971, 17 wells were already operating in the Krasnograd district. But an accident occurred when drilling a new well at the field in July 1971. Gas came to the surface before the well reached its planned depth and the force of the spewing gas condensate reached 400 atmospheres, throwing two workers into the air. Engineers took days deciding what to do to stop the well. The nearest village was just 500 meters away. Residents were told to not light any fires and to stay out of their homes and not turn on any lights. Unable to stop the gas, the engineers decided to light it. By the next day, the burning flare was tens of meters high. Several attempts were made during the next year to put out the fire. Filling the well with tons of concrete slabs did not work - they flew apart like toys. Such flares are normally put out by capping the well. But for this case, specialists from Moscow offered an original solution - an underground nuclear explosion."

"- Japan Steel Works Ltd., maker of nuclear reactor parts for customers including Areva SA and Toshiba Corp., plans to sell components for 26 reactors in the next three years as demand expands from China and the U.S. Component sales will almost double to 11 units annually for the year ending March 2013, from an expected 6 for this fiscal year with an expansion, President Ikuo Sato said in an interview in Tokyo. Japan Steel Works is spending 80 billion yen ($879 million) on its Muroran factory, Sato said May 21. Japan Steel Works is seeking to benefit from demand for nuclear energy as a carbon-free source amid a global push to combat climate changes. Interest in nuclear power is growing at the fastest rate since the Three Mile Island accident in the U.S. in 1979 and the Chernobyl explosion in Ukraine in 1986, International Atomic Energy Agency statistics showed. "

"The worst man-made disaster in history took place at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine almost 25 years ago. It has inspired one of Russia's top screenwriter-directors to make a film based on the story. Yahoo StumbleUpon Google Live Technorati del.icio.us Digg Reddit Mixx Propeller "On Saturday", Aleksandr Mindadze's tragic exploration of the nuclear disaster, will go back to the events of 1986, when the notorious Number Four reactor suffered an unstoppable chain reaction."

A NUCLEAR disaster in Ireland would kill up to 350 people, an assessment warned in 1978 as plans were discussed for a Co. Wexford plant. A decade before the Chernobyl disaster devastated parts of the Ukraine, the Irish assessment estimated the number of deaths that could result from a major nuclear accident here, according to State papers released last week under the 30-year rule.

The current uranium mining/exploration operation in the Bootheel is similar to Chernobyl on two points: - Both places, the Ukraine and the delta counties of Missouri, have some of the best agricultural soils in the world. The area around Chernobyl never again can be used in humanity's lifespan. - The Mississippi County area has the potential to end up in the same boat because in situ leaching will cross both the St. Francis and Ozark aquifers, potentially forever contaminating them with uranium as well as other heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and arsenic. Those minerals are also found in Missouri's bedrock limestone. That water is used for irrigation and potentially could spread heavy metals, including uranium, all over the Bootheel.

France's vast nuclear power network has largely shielded it from the Russian gas crisis, handing the country's atomic energy sector an unexpected public relations coup. With 80 percent of its electricity generated by nuclear power stations, the highest proportion in the world, France was able to reassure nervous households and industry after the Russia-Ukraine dispute cut off gas supplies to Europe. The gas crisis coincided with exceptionally cold weather in France, testing its power system to the limit as households turned up their heaters to maximum.

Fears were raised yesterday over a decision to restart a potentially dangerous decommissioned nuclear power plant in the centre of Europe because of a shortage of gas caused by Russia's dispute with Ukraine. Slovakia, defying undertakings given when it joined the European Union, said that it would reactivate a Soviet-style nuclear generator that has a record of safety problems because it had received no Russian gas since last Thursday. Russia again found a reason to delay turning the taps back on yesterday, despite an agreement brokered by Mirek Topolanek, the Czech Prime Minister, on behalf of the EU, which was signed by Russian and Ukrainian leaders at the weekend.

Nuclear energy is undergoing a worldwide renaissance, but poor nations yearning to develop need to realize that it is no panacea to profound poverty, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Monday. After the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine, many governments questioned the value of nuclear power. Some European countries, like Austria and Germany, decided to wean themselves off nuclear energy.

Lithuania may have to defy the European Union and keep its Ignalina nuclear power plant open beyond 2009 if the EU cannot help it assure energy supplies, the prime minister and economy minister said on Thursday. Lithuania agreed under its EU entry treaty to close Ignalina, which has the same kind of reactors as at Chernobyl in Ukraine, where the world's worst nuclear disaster happened in 1986.