Chernobyl liquidators
Many liquidators were praised as heroes by the Soviet government and the press, while some struggled for years to have their participation officially recognized.
Disaster management at Chernobyl included a diverse range of occupations, positions, and tasks, and in particular: A small number of foreigners (mostly from the Western countries) volunteered to participate in international medicine- and science-related on-the-ground projects related to the relief operation.
[5] Estimates of the number of deaths potentially resulting from the accident vary enormously: the World Health Organization (WHO) suggest it could reach 4,000: A total of up to 4000 people could eventually die of radiation exposure from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) accident nearly 20 years ago, an international team of more than 100 scientists has concluded.
While there is rough agreement that a total of either 31 or 54 people died from blast trauma or acute radiation syndrome (ARS) as a direct result of the disaster,[9][10][4] there is considerable debate concerning the accurate number of deaths due to the disaster's long-term health effects, with estimates ranging from 4,000 (per the 2005 and 2006 conclusions of a joint consortium of the United Nations and the governments of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia), to no fewer than 93,000 (per the conflicting conclusions of various scientific, health, environmental, and survivors' organizations).
[19] The problem is tied to the fact that Chernobyl veterans are classified under the Estonian Persons Repressed by Occupying Powers Act.
It was reported in 2017 that an agreement had been reached by the Estonian parliament to provide all liquidators residing in Estonia, including over 1,400 non citizens, with a payment of €230 per year.
[18] The most highly exposed clean-up workers were significantly more symptomatic on the somatization and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom scales.
[23] The National Chernobyl Museum in Kyiv, Ukraine keeps a "Remembrance Book" (Ukrainian: Книга пам'яті, Knyha Pamyati) – an open to the public online database of liquidators featuring personal pages with photo and brief structured information on their input.
