At 0123 hours on 26 April 1986, during a safety experiment that went disastrously wrong, reactor no.4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine went into meltdown and explosions blew off the roof releasing a cloud of radioactive particles that spread across the Northern Hemisphere.

The full magnitude of the catastrophe, the consequences of which will continue to impact on the region for many decades, is not fully understood.

The radioactive contamination affected many countries, including Scotland, but the worst affected was and continues to be – Belarus.

From ‘Building a Better Future’, Committee on the Problems of the Consequences of the Catastrophe:-

	23% of Belarus has been contaminated with long-lived radioactive isotopes.
	2.3 million people have been affected.
	2,640 square kilometres of arable land have been withdrawn from use.
	17,300 square kilometres of forests have dangerous levels of radioactive contamination.

	An area the size of Germany, or 1.5 times the size of the United Kingdom has been radioactively contaminated.
	More than 400 settlements have been rendered uninhabitable.
	The accident has undermined the agricultural sector, which constituted the basis of the local economies. Direct economic damage has run into billions of US dollars.
	Closure of enterprises, shortage of jobs, lack of investments and limited space for self-employment and private enterprises increase people’s dependence on the food grown in contaminated land plots, mushrooms and berries gathered in nearby forests and external assistance. The situation is made worse by the overall feeling of uncertainty and disempowerment, affecting people’s health and well-being.
	The prevalence of various types of diseases is 1.8 – 2.5 times higher than in the unaffected parts of the country and only 20% of children and teenagers who reside in areas affected by radiation are considered healthy.