The zone of alienation

Ten years after the nuclear disaster, people still live and die in Chernobyl. Thousands of people continue to live and work there. Roughly 500 have moved back into their old homes inside the alienation zone. Fewer than half still alive. Medical researchers in the area insist that immune systems are weakened by doses of radiation far lower than previously thought. However, an European Union sponsored study concluded that Chernobyl's toll has been exaggerated. Thus, while 760 children in the contaminated area have developed thyroid cancer, only three have died as a result. Yet in and around Chernobyl, people carry on their lives and the Ukrainian Government says it can't afford to close the plant without billions of dollars in Western aid. ills