Doctors suspect thousands of premature cancer deaths can be tracked to the meltdown and the release of radioactive isotopes into the atmosphere.In the days following the disaster more than 115,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Ukraine Soviet officials finally publicly admitted they had a problem. Attempts to reduce the risk of radiation spread continued: liquid nitrogen was pumped below the reactor to cool it, contaminated villages were bulldozed, radioactive pets and livestock were shot, contaminated topsoil was buried.By early May the fire in the reactor's core had burnt itself out but in Kyiv, schools closed, residents were told to stay indoors and leafy vegetables were off the menu.On May 14, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev spoke about the accident for the first time, reassuring citizens that "the worst is behind us".A few days later construction began on a huge concrete sarcophagus to cover the ruins of reactor 4, marking the start of a 100-year process to decommission the reactor and contain its lethal remains.But despite the danger, the Soviet Union could not just abandon the Chernobyl power plant