Reactor fire ‘still burning’

Press, 7 May 1986, Page 1

Reactor fire ‘still burning’

By

ANDREW ROSENTHAL

the official news media and that a river feeding the reservoir north of Kiev was in danger of contamination. “Pravda” did not elaborate, but the phrasing, along with the description of the plant’s status as “complicated,” indicated the fire was still burning when the article was written.

many parts of Europe. The Kremlin says two died and about 20 in the Soviet Union were seriously injured in the accident.

tion suits, were still manning the three undamaged reactors in the four-re-actor complex, which have been shut down but need to be monitored.

from the accident by volunteer drivers from Kiev. The Council of Ministers issued a four-para-graph statement through Tass that provided Soviet people with the broadest geographical description yet of the effects from Chernobyl. The statement indicated that the radiation had spread beyond the 30km evacuation zone round the plant, about 10km from Byelorussia, a Soviet republic to the north of the Ukraine and east of Poland.

of Associated Press NZPA Moscow The Communist Party daily newspaper, “Pravda,” indicated yesterday that a fire was still burning in the Chernobyl nuclear reactor 10 days after an explosion ripped apart the reactor building. The article, released yesterday by the news agency, Tass, before publication in “Pravda,” provided the Soviet public with the first details of what happened at Chernobyl. It said the situation at the plant 130 km north of Kiev remained “complicated” but was under control.

“Pravda” said the residents of the area were moved out within four hours after the accident began. It did not say when that was, but other reports have said the fire erupted on April 26.

Despite the firefighters'’ efforts, “Pravda” said, “radioactivity was partially discharged upwards and then a fire started inside (the reactor).” “Pravda” said: “It should be noted that it (the fire) is extremely difficult to put it out, as it is impossible to use water or any chemicals to extinguish it.”

Television footage on Sunday night and a black-and-white photograph displayed on television last week showed that the explosion ripped a wall and the roof off the reactor building, which is separated from a twin reactor in an attached structure. “Pravda” said the fire erupted in a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after an explosion ripped apart the reactor building.

Tass said the “Pravda” article was written by correspondents from the newspaper who visited the plant and its settlement, which once housed 25,000 energy, construction, chemical industry and river port workers. These people were moved out in four hours and the city is now empty. Only a specialised radiation monitoring vehicle appeared on the streets from time to time, the report said.

Those materials, it said, would evaporate instantly and carry more radiation into the atmosphere. “Pravda” repeated Soviet denials of a Western report that thousands of people were killed or that there was “massive irradiation of almost the entire European part of the U.S.S.R. and of neighbouring countries.”

The statement added that officials were taking “the necessary sanitation, hygienic, treatment and preventive measures” but it did not say in how large an area or what kind. Like previous statements on the accident, it did not specify how much radioactivity was being measured or how large the affected zone was. A report on the evening television news said

It repeated earlier assurances that radiation levels were dropping at the four-reactor plant and surrounding areas.

A Government statement issued earlier indicated that the radioactivity was more widespread than had been reported in

It was the first time a Soviet newspaper had given any details of the accident, which sent radioactivity spewing across

"Pravda” said that workers, presumably wearing radiation protec-

It said those evacuated were taken to areas safe

officials were conducting radiation cheeky on farms 90 km south of the plant

The Moscow Communist Party chief, Mr Boris Yeltsin, said the Soviets would let foreign experts inspect the accident site “as soon as the radioactivity has decreased to a point where this is possible.”

He had said 49,000 people were moved from what he referred to as the “danger area.” Dr Robert Gale, an American specialist invited by the Soviet Government said he had been performing bonemarrow transplants on Chernobyl victims. Damage to bone marrow is likely to be one of the first results of severe radiation exposure.

Four nuclear health experts from the United States Military Forces in West Germany arrived on Sunday to conduct tests in Moscow.

Further report, page 10