Ukraine Marks 25 Years Since Chernobyl Disaster

The president of Ukraine has asked for $300 million to cover lingering costs of the world's worst nuclear disaster.

On the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown, the president of Ukraine asked world leaders to help cover the costs of building a shelter over the damaged reactor. Memorial services were held in Kiev and Chernobyl on Tuesday to mark a quarter-century since the meltdown, which sent 400 times more radiation into the atmosphere than the first atomic bomb dropped on Japan. President Viktor Yanukovych used the occasion to ask for $300 million to continue construction on the site of the power plant, which remains off limits to humans due to extremely high radiation levels. The long-term effects of the Chernobyl meltdown have loomed over the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, where workers are still trying to contain the spread of radiation nearly two months after it was hit by an earthquake and tsunami.