Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!qantel!lll-lcc!lll-crg!seismo!mcvax!enea!kuling!andersa From: andersa@kuling.UUCP (Anders Andersson) Newsgroups: net.followup Subject: Re: Russian Nuclear Accident Message-ID: <936@kuling.UUCP> Date: Mon, 5-May-86 23:02:22 EDT Article-I.D.: kuling.936 Posted: Mon May 5 23:02:22 1986 Date-Received: Sun, 11-May-86 16:43:28 EDT References: <228@scbhq.UUCP> Reply-To: andersa@kuling.UUCP (Anders Andersson) Organization: Uppsala University, Sweden Lines: 87 In article <228@scbhq.UUCP> sdp@scbhq.UUCP writes: >Europe, what is happening over there? I would greatly appreciate reading your >first hand reports, and comments. [This might quickly get either scientific or political. Direct followups as you wish, but remember that net.politics does not reach Europe by itself.] As western news media and authorities usually keep each others informed (with the sparse TASS bulletins in mind) of what they know, I suspect you can get almost the same info as I regarding the details of the Chernobyl accident itself, just by listening to the news. What might differ is the coverage of its various effects in neighbouring countries (i.e. Europe). An increase in radioactive radiation has been measured in several European countries. In Sweden, the increase has ranged from 2-100 times the usual background radiation (it's somewhat unclear to me what these figures really mean, as the background radiation itself can vary a lot between different geographical areas). The main peak was located just west of Uppsala (from where I'm writing this). This should be due to the rain which fell here on Monday the 28th and around. The radiation is now steadily decreasing. The total amount of radioactivity received here is about 1/1000 of what's considered really *dangerous*, about 1/50 of the *security limit* chosen for ordinary people, and about 1/5 of the limit chosen for pregnant women. Thus it seems very unlikely that someone here will actually get harmed from this. As radioactive material, mainly iodine-131, might concentrate on the ground, some precautions have been recommended. Among these, farmers have been advised to keep their milk-producing cows indoors a few days more, until the radioactivity in the grass has been declared below reasonable levels. Also, people are advised not to use rain water for drinking and cooking. I've heard similar reports from the FRG, Luxembourg and Austria. Eastern Europe is expected to have received a much higher amount of radioactivity. In Poland, children have been given iodine solution for protective reasons. I think in Romania people are advised to stay indoors, but reports from these areas are few as usual. Food imported from eastern Europe will be carefully checked for radioactive pollution before accepted. The accident has also resulted in a re-born debate on the Swedish nuclear power programme, and there have been demands for immediate closing of all Swedish nuclear reactors (of which none is said to have the same design as the misfortunate Chernobyl reactor). To throw in my personal opinion: "Rumors in Kiev say 2000 deaths"... I simply don't believe such a rumor (who could possibly have counted them, without the authorities' blessing?) until better proven. It might even be true that only two persons were killed, as they declare - I know nothing about what Chernobyl looks like geographically, and what kind of staff was at the plant on Saturday the 26th. If someone knows more, please tell us. What seems to be likely is that vast areas around the place are spoiled for several years, but for how long and how seriously is impossible to tell without any real, detailed information on what happened. Those tens of thousands of people who were evacuated (the entire population of Chernobyl, I guess) were said not to be able to return "within the nearest future". The silence and briefness of Soviet media on what's the most serious disaster ever with a nuclear power station is itself worrying, though not very surprising. On Tuesday evening (the 29th) Soviet sport television showed pictures from a sunny Kiev, where bicycle contests were held during the weekend, together with a public chess tournament (indoors). Though I don't understand Russian in any useful way, neither the television team nor the public seemed to recognize what was going on in their neighbourhood right then. I think it was on Wednesday they first mentioned the accident on the news. Later they accused western media and "certain powers" for exaggerating the whole thing "to miscredit the USSR". They themselves are to be blamed for most of the rumors, as they have strangled the flow of concrete information. They might be partially right in that we would most likely use another tone and ask different questions, in the case the accident should have happened in the west. Maybe we should think more about this, in order to improve our possibilities to communicate. I didn't say we have no reason for our tone and our questions. I don't worry the least for the Swedish people. I'm somewhat worried about what the effects will be in eastern Europe and in Balticum, perhaps Turkey (nothing has been said about Turkey so far). Most I'm worried about the situation for the people of Chernobyl and its surroundings. Being unable to help directly, one still wants to know what's going on, to be able to show sympathy at least - but the self-righteous attitude of the Soviet authorities quickly changes sympathy into frustration and anger. -- Anders Andersson, Dept. of Computer Systems, Uppsala University, Sweden Phone: +46 18 183170 UUCP: andersa@kuling.UUCP (...!{seismo,mcvax}!enea!kuling!andersa)