Chernobyl 40 years on

I may use Russian words for places in this article, this simply reflects both the history (Ukraine was part of the USSR at this point in history) and the fact I'm more familiar with Russian language than Ukrainian. This doesn't imply any political bias on my part! Forty years ago on 26th April 1986 the Chernobyl (Чернобыль) nuclear power plant reactor 4 exploded. Located close to the city of Pripyat (Припять). The story of how this happened and the aftermath is covered in extensive depth in a number of places and I'm not going to go over that ground in this blog. The HBO series and a myriad of books, documentaries, podcasts and such will explain the background for those curious. In brief however, the explosion and massive radiation that was released resulted in 3 zones surrounding the reactor becoming isolation zones. These zones included the city of Pripyat and meant the population was eventually evacuated. When I lived in London, I was informed by a lady who grew up in the USSR,…