The Clean Up After The Fallout Was Much Harder

Despite conflicting accounts, at least 600,000 workers were dispatched to put out the fire and clean up the worst of the nuclear plant's radioactivity. Those individuals, dubbed "liquidators," were given a special status that allowed them to obtain advantages such as additional healthcare and money. They were all exposed to high quantities of radiation. According to a disputed assessment issued by members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, between 112,000 and 125,000 of these "liquidators" had perished by 2005, accounting for roughly 15% of the total.

The Chernobyl explosions killed just two plant operators and caused a third to die of a heart attack. During the first few months of the cleanup, 28 employees and firefighters died from acute radiation poisoning, and many more were severely ill. Heavy radioactive fallout, which reached as far west as France and the United Kingdom, wreaked havoc on the environment. Thousands of youngsters who consumed irradiated milk developed thyroid cancer, with at least 15 of them dying as a result. Other cancer deaths were almost probably caused by Chernobyl, while the exact number is still debated. Many of the report's figures were later challenged by Western scientists, who questioned their scientific legitimacy.