1991
A specialised enterprise was organised, and all further work in the zone was done on a professional basis. (All people who worked in the zone untill 1990, no matter what task, got status as "liquidator" and the right to social benefits.)
April. Soviet authorities announce 200,000 people are evacuated, 1in 1991 another 112,000 will be evacuated and in 1992 about 12,000.
April: Laka Foundation publishes in the WISE News Communique an extensive (but not by any means complete) list of contaminated foodstuffs dumped on the world market (especially in southern countries) in the first five years.  [....read more]
15 April: rumours circulating since May 1986 about Soviet airforce producing artificially rain from radioactive clouds moving towards Moscow in the first days after the accident early May 1986 are confirmed by soviet scientists during a conference in Berlin, Germany. At the same conference Chernousenko claims, already 7,000 – 10,000 people have died as a result of Chernobyl.
26 April: On the fifth anniversary of Chernobyl there are mass demonstrations in Kiev and Minsk. The world press focuses on the event, highlighting new evacuations, alleged sicknesses in contaminated zones, and the continuing operation of Soviet RBMK reactors, including those at Chernobyl.
26 April: a special stamp to commemorate the accident is launched in the Soviet Union  [see picture]
21 May: IAEA/IAC releases study: “Assessment of Radiological Consequences and Evalaution of Measures for the Chernobyl Accident”
Main IAEA conclusions:
- there were no health disorders that could be directly attributed to radiation exposure.
Main criticism on the report:
- study excluded the liquidators, evacuees and hotspots
According to Greenpeace the only aim of the study was to “produce a thirty-second sound-bite which is pleasing to the ear of the Soviet authorities – ‘we didn’t find radiation-induced health effects’ is constructed to avoid implicating radiation in the disaster  [....read more]
24 August: Ukraine declares independence from the Soviet Union after a failed hard-line coup in Moscow.
29 August: On top of the ‘want’-list of the independent Ukraine is the closure of Chernobyl
12 October: After a fire breaks out in the second Chernobyl reactor, this unit too has to be shut down for good.
18 November: Ukraine plans to close the remaining reactors at Chernobyl in 1993 at the latest.
12 December: Two Bulgarian ex-ministers are sentenced to imprisonment of 3 and 2 years, because they found guilty of hushing up the dangers of Chernobyl to the Bulgarian population after the 1986 accident
 

1992
March: Ukrainian government reports that cracks have appeared in the sarcophagus. An international competition is to be held for a design for a replacement roof.
May & August: forest fires lift radiation levels in Belarus, again
July: Ukrainian government launches an international competition (‘Shelter-2 competition’) for the best project to prevent the ruins of the reactor from threatening public health and the environment. A new shelter (‘sacophagus’) is urgently needed.
18 September US experts estimate the economic damage for Ukraine due to Chernobyl at about US$150 billion
15 October Block 3 is brought back online. Number 2 will follow at the end of the month
29 November Ukrainian nuclear experts warn for Americium-241. This Pu-241 daughter emits alpha-radiation and is seen as more dangerous as its parent. Experts say alpha-radiation will be much higher in 50-70 years from now and hope it will not spread outside the 30km zone. (see August 4, 2005)
 

1993
January to March: Establishment of a thyroid centre in Gomel by the Otto Hug Strahleninstitut, Munich. Gomel is a large city with a population of 500 000 in the most severely contaminated region of Belarus.
April: World Health Organisation expects sharp rise in both leukaemia and cancers, after numbers in both are increasing
18 June: The international Shelter-2 competition ends. But Ukrainian government does not award a first prize.The French consortium Campenon Bernard receives a second prize. None of the 19 concepts on the shortlist fullfills all Ukranian requirements. Unclear what happens next. Ukraine is  looking to establish an international fund to raise money.
22 October: Ukrainian government decided, due to electricity shortage not to close the remaining Chernobyl reactors and suspends a moratorium on new built
9 December: Russian geochemist Valerin Kopejkin claims that if international radiation limits for Strontium-90 would be installed in the Ukraine, Kiev has to be evacuated.
 

1994
February. US-MIT releases report: emissions at Chernobyl 5 times higher between than official IAEA estimate of 50 million curies. MIT claims 185-250 million Curies was released.
9/10 October Closure of Chernobyl remaining reactors in 1996 at the earliest
 

1995
February: The first phase of the EU-study for stabalising the sarcophagus ends. The study claims it is a huge open radiation source. The consortium is pointing to the danger of collapse of the firsdt sarcophagus and the problems of radiactive waste in case of constructng a second containment. Start of construction is foreseen in April 1996.
March: 100 times more thyroid cancers in Gomel, Belarus, WHO claims in report published in British Medical Journal.
13 April: President Leonid Kuchma declares Ukraine is ready to shut down the remaining reactors of the plant by the year 2000. His statement follows a meeting with European Commission officials in Kiev.
25 April: Ukrainian minister of public health Andrej Serdchuk: 125,000 people died due to Chernobyl, 432,000 still treated, 3.66 million affected.
July: In a resolution adopted at a Kiev Conference organised amonst others by WHO, it is said that mental disorders spreading among Chernobyl-affected people
20-23 November: new findings presented at a WHO conference in Geneva, suggest that radiation could also be increasing the incidence of strokes, heart attacks and liver disease, as well as damaging the brains of babies at the womb
22 December: At a meeting in the Canadian capital Ottawa, Ukraine and the G7 group of the world's leading industrialised nations sign a Memorandum of Understanding, agreeing to close Chernobyl. It involves commitments worth a total of some US$2.3 billion in aid from the G7 to support Chernobyl's closure by the year 2000. The agreed package of loans for Ukraine's energy sector includes the completion of two more modern nuclear reactors at Rivne (R4) and Khmelnytsky (K2) stations in the west of the country. The aid package includes US$498 million in G7 member grants and $1.8 billion in loan financing from international agencies. Most of the grant money -- US$349 million - will be for nuclear decommissioning and safety. More than $1.9 billion will be spent to upgrade nuclear plants and the energy sector as a whole.