[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5120]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


                         REMEMBERING CHERNOBYL

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight for two purposes. The first 
is to warmly recognize my noble brother, Steve. I am so proud of you.
  The second reason I rise is as co-chair of the Ukrainian Caucus to 
commemorate one of the greatest engineering and political tragedies in 
modern history. Thirty years ago today, on April 26, 1986, at 1:23 
a.m., operators in the control room of reactor number 4 mishandled a 
routine safety test at Chernobyl's Vladimir Illyich Lenin Nuclear Power 
Station in the former Soviet Union, now present-day Ukraine.
  The mishandled test led to a catastrophic explosion that burned for 
10 days, and the radioactive fallout spread over tens of thousands of 
square miles forcing more than one-quarter of a million people 
permanently from their homes. Its plumes reached northern Europe as 
well.
  Chernobyl's legacy remains a heavy burden for the people of Ukraine. 
To its everlasting shame, the Soviet Union tried to cover up the 
severity of the disaster engulfing the region with repercussions that 
could have been avoided.
  The event drove one-third of a million people from their homes and 
triggered an epidemic level of thyroid cancer. Over the years, the 
economic losses have amounted to hundreds of billions of dollars.
  Mr. Speaker, the impact of Chernobyl lingers socially, economically, 
and culturally. We, as a free world, should help build a bright future 
for these communities and their people who persevered in the face of 
such profound catastrophe.




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