CHERNOBYL AND AFTER
Monday April 24, 2006 at 10pm ET/PT

April 26 marks the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, when a reactor at the nuclear plant in Northern Ukraine exploded, releasing a highly toxic cloud into the atmosphere. In the days that followed, 70 per cent of the cloud's radioactive fallout was dispersed over the Belarusian border. For most of the world, the incident has become a tragic footnote in the history of civilian nuclear energy. For Belarus, however, the accident's horrific consequences are felt to this day. Within the area, devastating congenital birth defects have risen by a staggering 78 per cent since 1986.

Chernobyl and After brings viewers back to Belarus, where twenty years later, the population is still condemned to suffer the effects of lingering radiation.

Chernobyl and After focuses on the forgotten victims of the contamination, and the heroes struggling to help them against what appears to be a massive cover-up of the ongoing impact of the explosion. The stories of doctors, scientists and activists reveal in a dramatic and powerful way that the disaster relief efforts are far from over. What they have to say often contradicts the established truths of their adversaries in the nuclear lobby.

In its last report on Chernobyl, the International Atomic Energy Agency limited the direct consequences of the accident to 59 deaths caused by the explosion, and to the deaths of nine children from cancer of the thyroid. According to this same report, an additional 4,000 people are suffering from this particular cancer today without it constituting a mortal risk.

But incredibly, the report makes no mention of the innumerable pathologies in the area. Nor does the report mention the effects that ingesting small doses of radiation over a long period of time has had on the people of Belarus. In a compelling fashion, Chernobyl and After fills in some of these blanks.

Chernobyl and After is directed by Bernard Debord and produced by Mat Films in co-production with Iota Production, RTBF and Cinergon Production.