The talk will focus on the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in April 1986 and the current situation around the station and its surrounding areas. It will discuss initial and subsequent victims and health consequences, environmental impact, and the current state of the roof over the destroyed reactor. It will also comment on the impact on the nuclear industry in the former Soviet republics, as well as its current plans and new reactors. The talk is based on recent information from a wide variety of sources in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, and the archives of the former Ukrainian KGB.

David R. Marples is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of History & Classics and Director of the Stasiuk Program on Contemporary Ukraine, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta. He is author of thirteen books, including three on Chernobyl, and over 150 scholarly articles. He has been a consultant on the aftermath of the disaster for the governments of Canada and the United States, and has visited the plant and contaminated areas of Ukraine and Belarus. At the University of Alberta he has been the recipient of the university’s research prize–the J. Gordin Kaplan Award for Excellence in Research–in 2003 and its highest award, the University Cup, in 2008.