Michael Matjushkov (1940) has throat cancer. After the Chernobyl accident, he worked in the contaminated zone as a driver and electrician, taking out the wires in the area where people were evacuated. Chernobyl in the Ukraine became the site of the most infamous nuclear disaster accident of all. In 1986 the explosion of the nuclear reactor affected the lives of millions in Western Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine. Both countries have plans to build new reactors to export energy to Europe.