Thirty fifth anniversary of finishing of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant sarcophagus marked in Chisinau

Chisinau, 14 December /MOLDPRES/ - Members of the Chernobyl Union public association, government’s representatives, the leadership of the Defence Ministry and representatives of Ukraine’s Embassy today laid flowers at the Memorial of the Chernobyl Victims from the Moldovan capital and marked the 35th anniversary of the finishing of the construction of the sarcophagus over the reactor No 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.     
Attending the event was the deputy secretary general of the government, Svetlana Turcanu. She said that, 35 years ago, more than 600,000 people had been exposed to contamination following the Chernobyl accident and after the construction of the sarcophagus, the effects of the catastrophe were managed to be diminished.  
The head of the Chernobyl Union public association, Tudor Capatana, informed that 1,865 out of the 3,550 Moldovans who had participated in the Chernobyl relief works remained alive, of whom 1,780 are invalids. ‘’Each third participant in the Chernobyl events died and those who remained are sick. Once that sarcophagus constructed, a half of Europe was managed to be saved from an unprecedented catastrophe,’’ Capatana said.    
He thanked the authorities for increasing the allocations, as well as for extending the list of services provided to the veterans.  
The reactor No 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded on 26 April 1986 and subsequently a sarcophagus was built over the reactor hit, in order to maintain the radiation level under control. The sarcophagus has been recently reconstructed by a French consortium. The construction of the new sarcophagus lasted nine years, was carried out under the supervision of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and cost more than 1.5 billion euros.