Ukraine still fears another Chernobyl-size disaster at Europe's largest nuclear plant
International atomic experts have warned of a potential nuclear disaster with Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia plant in the middle of a war zone, bringing back terrifying memories of Chernobyl.
CHERNOBYL, Ukraine — Sophia Arkadiyivna remembers when the Soviet Union built the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1977, just 20 miles from the village where she served as mayor.
After years of atomic energy powering big Russian cities like Moscow, Leningrad and Voronezh, the USSR was finally ready to expand the technology to other Soviet republics like Ukraine. Soviet propaganda promised easier jobs and cleaner air.
"We didn't have a reason to distrust the government. They showed us how good things could be," she says.
Or so she thought at the time. It didn't take long for Arkadiyivna to turn skeptical.
She heard from friends and relatives who worked at the Chernobyl plant that authorities would cut corners and pump up power production
