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The Documentary: Alive In Chernobyl

The Documentary: Alive In Chernobyl: Episode 1

Episode 1

Alive In Chernobyl

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Alive In Chernobyl, Episode 1

Olga Betko returns to Chernobyl, on the 25th anniversary of the nuclear disaster

On the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, Olga Betko finds people who have returned to live in a nuclear "dead zone".

On the 25th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl power plant, presenter Olga Betko travels to Chernobyl - in her native Ukraine - to find the people who are living in what is known as the "dead zone". 

In the last week of April 1986, when the nuclear reactor exploded, many power station workers and their families were evacuated. It was not until a week later that many local rural families and farmers who also lived in the 'Exclusion Zone', were also evacuated to cities.   

This documentary follows the stories of a number of small groups of elderly rural people who have defied the radiation and returned from the cities to live in their abandoned villages, once again working the land they love. 

Olga Betko visits these tiny remote communities to see how they are surviving in isolation and also looks at how people there are recovering a poisoned homeland.

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