Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 26, 1990 TAG: 9004260570
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW LENGTH: Medium
It was the biggest national commemoration yet of the 1986 tragedy, the world's worst nuclear power accident.
"We have been silent too long," said a reporter on the TV news program Vremya, which focused its afternoon show on Chernobyl reports.
Officially, 31 people were killed when one of four reactors at Chernobyl caught fire and exploded on April 26, 1986, about 90 miles north of Kiev in the Soviet Ukraine. Unofficial reports say at least 250 died.
The blast spewed radioactive cesium, strontium and plutonium isotopes across much of the Ukraine, Byelorussia and Russia and sent a cloud of radioactive gas around the world.
For the first two days after the accident, the Soviet Union refused to report it to the outside world and withheld information from its own people. Only last year did officials admit the full scope of the contamination and decide to resettle 100,000 more people.
The official willingness to play up the Chernobyl anniversary today appeared to reflect both the growing awareness of the catastrophe's aftermath and the pro-democracy views of many newly elected local governing councils.
Residents in the southwestern Soviet regions most contaminated by the blast organized protests to demand better medical treatment, protection from radiation and punishment for the officials who covered up the accident's effects, activists said.
In the Byelorussian city of Gomel, most of the 35,000 workers of the GomselMash industrial complex walked out on a daylong strike, said Alexander Korniev, a plant worker.
Strikers were demanding better medical care and wanted all officials who participated in the cover-up brought to trial, he said.
The Chernobyl Telethon, one of the Soviet Union's first experiences Officially, 31 people were killed when one of four reactors at Chernobyl caught fire and exploded on April 26, 1986, about 90 miles north of Kiev in the Soviet Ukraine. Unofficial reports say at least 250 died. with television fund raising, collected $38 million, organizers announced.
The live broadcast, originating in Moscow, interspersed singing groups and interviews with tragic footage showing Chernobyl rescuers and children in the contaminated zone suffering from radiation-caused cancers. Along with money, pledges to the telethon center included donations of radiation-free fruit and even 1,100 pounds of honey for children in the contaminated area.
CNN showed live scenes of the telethon to American viewers. Many of the donations came from the United States, Japan and Western Europe, the Soviet news agency Tass said.
The Ukrainian legislature declared today "Chernobyl Tragedy Day" and its Byelorussian counterpart passed a similar measure. Other government bodies in the affected areas sanctioned widespread demonstrations.
On the eve of the anniversary, the Soviet legislature adopted a $26 billion program that would involve resettling an additional 200,000 people from irradiated areas.
The program was adopted Wednesday even though many members of the legislature, the Supreme Soviet, criticized it as inadequate to deal with the health, agricultural, economic and environmental aftermath of the accident.
After a day of debate, including charges of an official cover-up of the disaster and bungled evacuations, legislators endorsed a program for dealing with Chernobyl from 1990-1992, Tass reported.
About 180,000 to 200,000 people still living in contaminated areas four years after the accident are to be resettled.
In the months after the accident, 116,000 people were evacuated, and some Soviet scientists and politicians have been campaigning since then for further resettlements. They say 4 million Soviets are living on contaminated land.
The $26 billion is a major increase in spending on the Chernobyl aftermath. It is twice the level spent in the four years since the accident but still short of the $405 billion legislator Yuri Scherback has estimated is needed over the next 10 years.
Many Chernobyl-area residents have complained of inadequate medical care and cases of anemia, leukemia and cancers have been reported rising among people living on irradiated land. Many residents still eat irradiated food because alternatives are not available.
Dealing with the larger questions posed by Chernobyl, the Supreme Soviet directed the government to draft a bill on the use of nuclear energy and nuclear safety, and to phase out the Chernobyl power plant.
The three reactors not involved in the accident are still operating. The Ukrainian legislature wants the plant closed by 1995.
Several other nuclear power projects around the country were canceled because of the heightened safety concerns generated by the Chernobyl accident.
by CNB