This is particularly notable in the case of Chernobyl where people lived in the dead zone for up to a week after the accident, most of whom received lethal doses of radiation during this inexplicable cover-up by the Soviet government.
As Elena says in her photo essay, no one knows how many have died from Chernobyl, conservative estimates from the government say 4,000. But more realistic estimates say as many as 400,000. Almost all of the "liquidators" (illustrated on one of the pages) who were pressed into labor to contain the graphite fire by dumping tons and tons of boron onto it from helicopters, died from radiation sickness, as did those who built the cement "sarcophagus" that is gradually giving way over the years and will need to be rebuilt. It is a horrible and chilling mystery, and one that the post Soviet governments of Belarus and Ukraine (and Russia) are not anxious to share more information about!
