90,000 likely to die as a result of Chernobyl, warns Greenpeace

GREENPEACE said yesterday in a new report that more than 90,000 people were likely to die of cancers caused by radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, countering a UN report that predicted the death toll would be about 4,000.

The differing conclusions underline the contentious uncertainty that remains about the health effects of the world's worst nuclear accident as its 20th anniversary approaches.

A reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing radioactive clouds over much of Europe. The fallout was particularly severe in the northern reaches of Ukraine, western Russia and Belarus.