Hundreds of anti-nuclear protesters carry out a 'die-in' to commemorate world's deadliest disaster
Hundreds of anti-nuclear protesters carry out a 'die-in' to commemorate world's deadliest disaster
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About 700 anti-nuclear protesters staged a 'die-in' on a bridge on the Franco-German border on the eve of theu00a025th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. The demonstration was one of several to be staged on bridges over the Rhine around Strasbourg to mark the world's worst nuclear accident in Ukraine on April 26, 1986, as well as the Fukushima crisis in Japan. In Moscow, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev honoured rescue workers who cleaned up Chernobyl.
Grieving heads: The head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Metropolitan
Vladimir, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Ukrainian President
Viktor Yanukovych lay flowers during a ceremony for Chernobyl Nuclear
disaster in front of Chernobyl power plant yesterday. Pic/AFP
The main lesson of Chernobyl and Fukushima was that authorities must tell the truth, Medvedev said. "The world is so fragile and we are so connected that any attempts to hide the truth, to gloss over a situation, to make it more optimistic, will end with tragedy," Medvedev said. Moscow stayed silent on the Chernobyl disaster for three days, with the official news agency only reporting an accident on April 28 after the Forsmark nuclear plant in Sweden reported high radiation.
Six of the liquidators and 22 staff at the plant died of their radiation exposure in the months after the disaster.
Medvedev said Russia remained committed to peaceful nuclear energy, but added that Fukushima showed safety standards across the world had to be improved.
The main protest on the Pont de l'Europe joining Strasbourg in France and Kehl in Germany was to show that '"radioactivity knows no borders", said organiser Remi Verdet. "We're here to remind people that zero risk does not exist." Protesters dropped to the tarmac as sirens wailed for the 'die-in', before they threw flowers into the Rhine in memory of those killed by nuclear accidents.
Zone of alienation
Is then 30-kilometre radius around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant as one can only see abandoned cars and buildings
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