One cleanup worker dies the following day in a freak accident.
Those include his best friend, a cleanup worker whose skin was burned from a radiation dosage 15 times the minimally safe standard.
In 1987, almost 200 former cleanup workers took legal action against the United States.
Because some former plant workers have become cleanup workers, it is difficult to determine when they were exposed to the toxic substances.
In Belarus, nearly 10,000 of the cleanup workers are registered and have formed support groups.
But we've got 200 cleanup workers down there and it's manageable.
In the first year after the disaster, the number of cleanup workers in the zone was estimated to be 211,000.
In summer the suits become so hot that some cleanup workers put ice in their clothing.
During a visit to the site on September 14, 2001, Bush spoke to a crowd of cleanup workers through a megaphone.
The accident in the former Soviet Union left 134 cleanup workers with acute radiation sickness.