Chernobyl anniversary: clean-up worker still bears the scars

Many of his colleagues are long dead. He labours under constant pain. Several cancers have been cut out. One of his eyes no longer works.

He is one of Chernobyl's survivors.

Thirty years ago, on a Saturday, the reactor's breached carcass spewed radioactive particles into the air, where they silently floated over the nearby town of Pripyat, and then on via the atmospheric currents to scatter across Belarus, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Austria and untold other places.

Mr Bucharenko, who is in Australia to visit his daughter, clambered on top of reactor three in the months after the explosion and helped to seal it.

He and those he worked with probably saved untold lives.

In exchange, they gave their own. Mr Bucharenko worked without protective equipment, sometimes without even gloves to cover his hands.

"We must not allow the world to forget," he said.

The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO) is asking the Australian community to light a candle today in memory of those who have died, and those who are still affected by the disaster, the worst nuclear power plant accident in history.

"Three decades of suffering have already passed. The Chernobyl disaster is a human tragedy that will live with us for generations. It must be a reminder how precious human life is and we must never allow a disaster of this magnitude to occur again," AFUO chairman Stefan Romaniw​ said.