Gorbachev still haunted by Chernobyl 30 years on

Writes Beyond Nuclear's Linda Pentz Gunter in The Ecologist: 

"From the moment I was informed - by telephone, at five o'clock in the morning on that fateful April 26, 1986 - that fire had broken out in Block Four of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, my life has never been the same."

The author of these words, Mikhail Gorbachev, is 85 now. His health is failing.

He would like to travel the world and deliver this message. But more often than not, he cannot muster the energy. So in March, he sent an eloquent emissary in his stead, to address a gathering in London.

Gorbachev watched the Unit 4 Chernobyl nuclear reactor explode and melt down and the Soviet Union dissolve during his tenure as premier from 1985-1991.

Arguably it was the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe that turned him into an environmentalist. By 1992 he had founded Green Cross International, based in Geneva and from whence came his London emissary - Dr. Alexander Likhotal, the organization's current president.

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Beyond Nuclear on Thom Hartmann's "The Big Picture" regarding Hanford's radioactive leaks & Chernobyl commemoration in D.C.

Thom Hartmann, host of "The Big Picture"Thom Hartmann, host of "The Big Picture," interviewed Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps about recent, as well as historical, leaks of high-level radioative waste at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) military plutonium production Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, WA. Thom also asked Kevin about Beyond Nuclear's Fukushima+5/Chernobyl+30 commemoration at the Goethe-Institut in Washington, D.C.

Kevin appeared as part of a panel discussion also featuring Alex Lawson, Executive Director-Social Security Works, and Sarah Badawi, Legislative Affairs Director-Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC). Watch the segment beginning at the 45:00 minute mark, and continuing till the end of the show.