Chernobyl cleanup survivor’s message for Japan: ‘Run away as quickly as possible’

[Barrett808]

Natalia Manzurova, one of the few survivors among those directly involved in the long cleanup of Chernobyl, was a 35-year-old engineer at a nuclear plant in Ozersk, Russia, in April 1986 when she and 13 other scientists were told to report to the wrecked, burning plant in the northern Ukraine.

It was just four days after the world's biggest nuclear disaster spewed enormous amounts of radiation into the atmosphere and forced the evacuation of 100,000 people.

Manzurova and her colleagues were among the roughly 800,000 "cleaners" or "liquidators" in charge of the removal and burial of all the contamination in what's still called the dead zone.

She spent 4 1/2 years helping clean the abandoned town of Pripyat, which was less than two miles from the Chernobyl reactors. The plant workers lived there before they were abruptly evacuated ...

AOL News: What message do you have for Japan?

Manzurova: Run away as quickly as possible. Don't wait. Save yourself and don't rely on the government because the government lies. They don't want you to know the truth because the nuclear industry is so powerful. ...

Chernobyl cleanup survivor’s message for Japan: ‘Run away as quickly as possible’

[aquart]

1. "RUN AWAY AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE."

[truedelphi]

2. K & R. n/t

[mimitabby]

3. yeah don't wait for the govt to tell you what to do!

[Auntie Bush]

4. Sounds like excellent advice to me.

I hope as many people who can do so...do it...don't wait! Why take a chance unless you have to?

[RainDog]

5. govt and businesses lie. that's the truth. n/t

[Barrett808]

7. word n/t

[cutlassmama]

6. I would have left last week already. Those poor people!

[Mnemosyne]

8. K&R for more visibility. n/t