Ukraine remembers Chernobyl victims

2013-04-26 21

(ROUGH CUT -- NO REPORTER NARRATION)

Residents of in Slavutych, Ukraine gathered in the town's main square early Friday to remember the victims of the worst nuclear disaster in history.

Slavutych is located about 50 kilometres (31 miles) from Chernobyl where the No. 4 reactor exploded on April 26, 1986, releasing large amounts of radiation into the atmosphere.

The city was built in 1986 after residents of neighbouring Prypiat, near where the damaged reactor was located, were permanently relocated and the town became abandoned.

Dozens of people died in the three months following the catastrophe, according to theInternational Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but the subsequent health fallout of people who lived in the path of the leaked radiation is unknown.