Page 8/The Battalion/Wednesday, April 30, 1986
Soviet press says
little on disaster
MOSCOW (AP) — The Soviet
Union on Tuesday struggled to
contain a nuclear power plant di
saster that may have affected
thousands of people and the con
trolled Soviet press maintained
strict control of information
about the accident.
After the initial, four-sentence
report by the official news agency
l ass on Monday night, the Soviet
news media were silent for 24
hours about an accident that may
have melted the core of a Ukra-
nian nuclear reactor and sent a
radioactive cloud rolling across
hundreds of miles of Russian
plains.
The first report by Tass was is
sued hours after Scandinavian
countries detected increased ra
diation and said the radiation ap
parently came from the Soviet
Union.
Tass said the accident was at
the Chernobyl plant, but did not
say the accident occurred only 60
miles from Kiev, a city of 2.4 mil
lion people. The report did not
say what happened, when it hap
pened, mention whether there
were casualties or discuss possible
i isks to health.
'fhe report was read on the
main TV news program Monday
night and there was no new infor
mation issued until nearly 24
hours later when Tass issued a
second government statement
saying two people were killed and
that people had been evacuated
from four towns in the area.
That report said the radiation
from the damaged plant had
been contained.
Soviets call for foreign aid to fight fire
MOSCOW (AP) — The Soviet
Union struggled Tuesday to cope
with one of history’s gravest nuclear
catastrophes, appealing for foreign
help to fight a reactor fire and evac
uating thousands of people from the
imperiled countryside.
In its first report on casualties, the
Soviet government said the Ukrai
nian nuclear plant disaster killed two
people and injured an unspecified
number of others.
A radioactive cloud loosed by the
accident shifted, meanwhile, from
Scandinavia back toward Central
Europe.
Poland ordered emergency mea-
olitic
sures, and European political lead
ers angrily demanded that Moscow
explain why it did not quickly alert
the rest of the world to the disaster,
an apparent reactor meltdown be
lieved to have occurred late last
week.
Some called on the Soviets to shut
( down all their nuclear plants until
international inspections could be
carried out.
The Soviet government claimed
the “radiation situation” had been
stabilized at the damaged Chernobyl
plant, 450 miles southwest of Mos
cow. But Swedish officials said the
Soviets had asked the Stockholm
government for information on
combating nuclear-plant fires, indi
cating continuing serious problems.
The official Soviet news media
provided only sketchy accounts of
the accident. Other report, L
ever, drew a picture of h Ur ’ h *'
dus from the affected Urne<1{)10,
seeming unconcern in the S U1
capital of Kiev, just 60 mjlesT? 8
A West German technician?;
mg at the Chernobyl facilin j'
18-mile security zone h-.H K a "
tablished around the >"' >
plam \ ‘t e Danish state fad?
e , „ n fl.T r 'i ck con . v °yt were“,"i
mg north front the area tw?
Dnieper River, said Swedish r ^f'
Swedish experts say core meltdown occurred
STOCKHOUM, Sweden (AP) —
Swedish experts on Tuesday said ra
diation blown over northern Europe
indicates a core meltdown at a
crippled Soviet nuclear plant.
Radioactivity levels in the Nordic
countries rose to as much as six times
above normal Sunday, but were de
clining Tuesday. Swedish weather
experts said wind shifts were taking
any further radiation into Poland
and Czechoslovakia.
Bengt Pettersson of Sweden’s Nu
clear Power Inspection Board told a
news conference that the concentra
tion and composition of radioactive
fallout measured in Scandinavia in
dicated a core meltdown, one of the
most dangerous accidents possible in
a nuclear power plant.
Scandinavian officials also com
plained about Soviet handling of the
accident at the Chernobyl nuclear
power plant, about 60 miles from
Kiev.
Danish Prime Minister Poul
Schlueter, the first Nordic leader to
Publicly criticize Soviet handling 0 f
the accident, said it was “totally jn
suf licient" that the Soviet Unionhad
not warned that the radioactivity was
coming until it was detected in t || t
West on Sunday.
“It shouldn’t be that way in a mod
ern society,” he said.
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