Chernobyl Liquidator Badge
On April 26, 1986 the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukraine experienced a catastrophic nuclear accident. At that point, Ukraine (then officially the Ukrainian SSR), was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities of the Soviet Union. The explosion and fire that occurred as a result of the accident released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread contamination over large areas of western Soviet Union and Europe. From 1986 to 2000, approximately 350,000 people were evacuated and resettled from the most severely contaminated areas.
The battle to contain the contamination and avert an even greater planet-wide catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers. The people who were called upon to deal with the consequences following the disaster were dubbed “Liquidators”. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the worst of the radioactive debris was collected inside what remained of the reactor, with much of the debris manually shoveled in by Liquidators who could only spend a maximum of 40 seconds at a time working on the rooftops due to the extremely high doses of radiation being emitted.
The battle to contain the contamination and avert an even greater planet-wide catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers. The people who were called upon to deal with the consequences following the disaster were dubbed “Liquidators”. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the worst of the radioactive debris was collected inside what remained of the reactor, with much of the debris manually shoveled in by Liquidators who could only spend a maximum of 40 seconds at a time working on the rooftops due to the extremely high doses of radiation being emitted.
The item in my collection is a badge issued by the Soviet government to personnel involved in the Chernobyl clean-up operations. Different badges and medals were issued, but the one in my collection is one of the less common examples, reserved for issuance to the first liquidators or members of the communist party.