‘Gross breaches’ caused accident

Press, 21 July 1986, Page 10

‘Gross breaches’ caused accident

NZPA-Reuter Moscow The Soviet Politburo had established that the Chernobyl nuclear accident was caused by gross breaches of regulations at the atomic power station, the official news agency, Tass, reported yesterday.

It said the death toll from the accident had risen to 28. Previous official figures said 26 had died, all but two of them from radiation sickness.

Tass said that a special meeting of the ruling Politburo yesterday had determined that the accident was caused by “a series of gross breaches of the reactor operational regulations by workers of the atomic power station.”

“Experiments with turbo-generator operation regimes were conducted at the fourth generating unit when it was sidelined

for planned repairs at night” The Politburo statement was issued after a discussion of the report of the Government investigating commission set up to look into the reasons for the accident It was the first official statement on the causes of the explosion and fire in the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl power-station, 130 km north of Kiev, in the Ukraine.

“Altogether 28 people died as a result of the accident and the health of many others was impaired,” Tass said.

Radiation sickness had now been found in 203 people, of whom 30 were being-treated in hospital. Several hundred thousand people had undergone medical check-ups as a result of the accident. “The direct losses caused by the accident to about two bil-

lion roubles ($5.42 billion),” Tass said. The Politburo had sacked four officials for “gross errors and shortcomings in their work, leading to the accident.”

It named the men as Yevgeny Kulov, chairman of the state committee for safety in the atomic power industry, G. A. Shasharin, a Deputy Minister of Power and Electrification, a First Deputy Medium Engineering Minister, Alexander Meshkov, and V. S. Yemelyanov, deputy director of the Scientific Research and Design Institute.

The Soviet Minister of Power and Electrification, Mr Anatoly Mayorets, had received only a rebuke because he had held the post for just a short time. Mr Mayorets was appointed in March, 1985.

Tass said criminal proceedings had

ated against “persons guilty of the accident” Court proceedings would begin after an investigation by the Soviet public prosecutor was finished.

Tass announced the creation of a national Ministry of Atomic Power Engineering. The body would try “to raise the standards of management and responsibility for the development of nuclear power engineering.” Tass said the former director of the Chernobyl power plant, V. Bryukhanov, had been expelled from the Communist Party. Mr Bryukhanov was sacked last month, with the station’s chief engineer, for gross negligence in their duties.

It said party organs had been instructed to consider the responsibility of others, suggesting that more officials may go.

The Politburo statement said the accident had caused the radioactive contamination of about IOOOsq km of territory around the Chernobyl power-station. “Farm land has been taken out of agricultural production and work at plants, construction projects and other organisations has been suspended,” it said. “There are difficulties with power supply to the national economy.” The statement gave no details of the sequence of events leading to the explosion and fire, which spread radiation across Europe.

Soviet officials have maintained that graphite core reactors like those at Chernobyl are safe.

A Soviet nuclear expert said last week that the country would continue building and using such

reactors .although safety measures' would be improved. It was also announced that the first and second reactors at Chernobyl would resume working in October. The third, near the damaged fourth reactor, will remain out of action for some time. The fourth reactor is being encased in concrete and will eventually be entombed in an effort to halt radiation leakage. The Politburo emphasised the Importance of the entombment being done on schedule. That is due in the northern autumn.

The statement said the condition of the damaged reactor was “under control," that buildings in surrounding areas were being decontaminated, and work was being undertaken to remove and bury topsoil and treat the terrain with special V