
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 15, 1991                   TAG: 9104150132
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LONDON                                LENGTH: Short

SCIENTIST SAYS 10,000 DIED FROM CHERNOBYL

The most senior scientist at the Chernobyl nuclear power station says the disaster claimed up to 10,000 lives, thousands more than Soviet authorities have admitted, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

The Independent on Sunday newspaper quoted Vladimir Chernousenko as saying the fatalities included miners and military men who died from exposure to radiation during cleanup after the accident.

He is the scientific director in charge of the 18-mile exclusion zone surrounding the power station and said he himself had been given between two and four years to live because of his exposure to radiation. He said that, in part, prompted him to come forward.

"I expected some measures and some attempt to honestly deal with the situation," said Chernousenko, 50. "Now that I have seen, over five years, that no such attempt has been made, before I die I must make the world aware of what they are facing."

Soviet authorities have said 31 people died immediately following the explosion in April 1986. They have not disclosed how many people have died since.

Chernousenko said 3.5 million people living in nearby Kiev Instead of focusing all efforts on the task of saving people, the whole system set about suppressing all information about the disaster. Vladimir Chernousenko Plant's senior scientist were exposed to radiation levels hundreds of times higher than safe limits. He said the city should have been evacuated.

"Instead of focusing all efforts on the task of saving people, the whole system set about suppressing all information about the disaster," he said.

by CNB