Videos

A Look Back in Time: The International Chernobyl Project (1991)

26 April 2021

To mark the 35th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear accident, we are publishing a documentary from the IAEA's archives: the International Chernobyl Project (1991).

The film may look dated now but it tells an important story – of international collaboration and support following the accident.

The film covers a project launched in 1990 at the request of the Government of the Soviet Union to assess the environmental and health situation in the areas impacted by the accident, and to evaluate the measures taken by the authorities to safeguard the health of the population living there. Some 200 scientists from 25 countries and seven international and regional organizations participated in the International Chernobyl Project. Almost 50 missions to the Soviet Union were carried out in order to obtain the best available information and to make an independent assessment of the situation.

The IAEA continues to provide key support and coordination to the decommissioning effort in Chernobyl (now referred to by its Ukraininan name, Chornobyl) as well as ongoing remediation work across the region.