msnbc

The human price of Chernobyl
Cleanup workers plea for benefits promised by government
Alexander Kraizman, who helped clean up the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident, remembers comrades pictured on a memorial wall who died after radiation exposure.
http://www.msnbc.com:80/news/544137.asp?cp1=1
By Angela Charlton
ASSOCIATED PRESS

SHAKHTY, Russia, March 19 —It is day 211 for the men camped out on a snow-packed square in the southern Russian town of Shakhty, the 30th week of their desperate plea for millions of rubles owed them for helping clean up history’s worst nuclear accident.

THE DAY starts with wives and children of these men — dubbed “Chernobyltsy” for their work at the Chernobyl nuclear plant after the 1986 disaster — arriving with medicine, bottled water and a kiss before heading to work or school.

The men, mostly former coal miners now unable to work because of radiation-related ailments, stay behind. They talk about politics, or sports. And lately, they talk about the nuclear plant that just opened 90 miles to the east — Russia’s first new nuclear station since Chernobyl. All are opposed. “We understand what that means, the risk of invisible radiation,” says a protest organizer, Viktor Butsev.

THE SHAKHTY PROTESTERS

Throughout the day, more Chernobyltsy, friends and neighbors appear at the camp with words of support, gathering beneath huge caricature portraits of top government officials.

About 90 men have been taking part in the protest since July, rotating teams every week, with about a dozen men at a time sleeping in rough canvas tents and consuming only water. As day 211 draws to a close, they play backgammon on rickety cots and share stories of their children — one has brought a pink balloon to decorate the drab tent.

As part of the disaster brigades deployed at Chernobyl, the men enjoy special legal status in Russia and are supposed to earn monthly benefits ranging from 300 to 5,000 rubles, the equivalent of about $10 to $180. But chronic government cash shortages often hold up payments.

Butsev says the Shakhty protesters haven’t been paid since January 1999, and each is owed from 30,000 to 180,000 rubles ($1,070-$6,400). Local officials say funds have been delayed pending a new law on Chernobyl benefits.

‘AFTERTASTE OF METAL’

In the meantime, many cleanup workers face cancer and other ailments they cannot afford to treat. The protesters praise neighboring Ukraine for closing the Chernobyl plant in December after years of international pressure. Sometimes, the men talk about the catastrophe that unites them.

“I still remember that aftertaste of metal, and how it was hard to breathe,” says Vladimir Mandrikin, head of the Shakhty Chernobyl Union. “We didn’t want to admit how much we were weakened.”