Chernobyl Liquidators

Lore & Background

The word liquidator is a euphemism taken from the official Soviet phrase for a participant in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident, a phrase engraved on the medals and badges awarded to them.

The work covered a wide range of occupations. It included the operating staff of the plant and the firefighters who responded at once; civil defence troops who removed contaminated material; troops and police who handled security and the evacuation; medical and sanitation staff; air force and civil aviation crews who flew helicopters over the reactor; and scientists, engineers, transport and construction workers. A team of coal miners built a large protective foundation to keep radioactive material out of the aquifer under the reactor. Photographers and other media workers risked their lives to document the scene.

Reader's Guide

The WHO counts 240,000 recovery workers called upon in 1986 and 1987 alone. In all, 600,000 people received certificates recognising them as liquidators. Individual doses recorded through 1990 ran from under 10 millisieverts to over 1 sievert, with an estimated average of 120 millisieverts, though such figures are very uncertain.

Veteran status entitles surviving liquidators to significant social benefits in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The government and the press hailed many of them as heroes. Others spent years fighting for official recognition of their participation, their health care or their stories.

Did You Know?

• Special squads were assigned to hunt the domestic animals left behind in evacuated settlements.
• A small number of foreigners volunteered for medical and scientific projects linked to the relief operation.