You're reading: Pulitzercenter.org: Chernobyl survivor shares story, advice for Japan

Natalia Manzurova was a 35-year-old nuclear engineer in Russia when she was assigned to be part of the clean-up crew at the Chernobyl power plant in northern Ukraine, the site of the worst nuclear accident in history. Despite her training, Manzurova did not fully comprehend the dangers. On a preliminary visit to Chernobyl soon after the disaster, she stood out amidst the slew of workers dressed in anti-contamination suits. “I arrived in a short dress and sandals—I had no idea what I was going in for,” she said. Twenty-five years ago, on April 26, 1986, Chernobyl’s reactor number four exploded after an experiment gone awry. The blast released 400 times more radiation than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Read the story here.