The village of Ramsås near Härnösand was among Sweden's worst-hit areas by Chernobyl fallout in 1986. Residents like Arne Nyback and Birgitta Öman recall how daily life changed overnight with food restrictions and radiation fears. Forty years on, traces remain.
On April 26, 1986, a test at the Chernobyl reactor in what is now Ukraine went awry. An explosive fire destroyed the reactor building, and a radioactive cloud spread across northern Europe. The Soviet Union initially kept the disaster secret, but Swedish authorities detected high radiation levels on an employee's shoes at Forsmark nuclear power plant two days later.
That evening, the Soviets acknowledged the accident. In Västernorrland, especially Ramsås near Härnösand, fallout was measured as the highest in Sweden. Arne Nyback, out elk hunting, had to bury the animal they shot. "You get a bit shaky in the body thinking it was worst here," he says.
Birgitta Öman ran a family farm and kept cows indoors all summer. They could not use local grass and ordered feed from southern Sweden. Berries, mushrooms, elk and reindeer meat were checked or discarded, and fish thrown away. Many lived with fears of cancer and radiation effects.
