Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster: News Report From April 28, 1986

there has been a nuclear accident in the Soviet Union and the Soviets have admitted that it happened the Soviet version is this one of the atomic reactors at the churnable atomic power plant near the city of Kiev was damaged and there is speculation in Moscow that people were injured and may have died the Soviets may have been fairly quick to acknowledge the accident because evidence in the form of mild nuclear radiation had already reached beyond the Soviet borders to Scandinavia we begin with ABC's Dean Reynolds the first word that something was seriously wrong came from this power plant in eastern Sweden where workers coming on the job registered abnormally high levels of radiation on their bodies although the levels were not high enough to harm humans and no accident had occurred at that plant it was shut down and as tests were conducted similar puzzling reports of high radiation came in from all over Scandinavia but still no accidents were reported leading to the conclusion that the problem was elsewhere to the east in the Soviet Union Union a fact confirmed to the Soviet people on television tonight an official announcement from the Council of ministers there has been an accident at the chille atomic power station one of the atomic reactors was damaged the consequences of the accident are being taken care of help is being given to the victims of the accident a government commission has been set up the civilian plant in question is in the Ukraine it's something of a showcase facility featured here in Soviet Life Magazine which extolled its safy record it's near the city of Kiev population 2.5 million and about a th000 miles from Scandinavia meaning that whatever did occur there a radioactive Cloud headed north across Poland today and into Denmark where radiation levels were five times normal to Finland six times normal to Norway up 50% and Sweden illegally high it's almost certainly the most severe accident that has ever taken place in uh the short history of Civilian nuclear power that means it is far worse than the Three Mile Island incident of 1979 experts tonight say The Cloud of radiation is now dissipating over the North Atlantic and poses no further threat to anyone but as the Soviets treat an unknown number of casualties there's no way to say how much lasting damage that cloud may have already caused Dean Reynolds ABC News London this is Roger Peterson until the accident there were 50 nuclear reactors operating in the Soviet Union generated 11% of that nation's electricity most of the larger Soviet plants differ in design from us reactors the major difference is most Soviet nuclear plants do not have containment buildings the thick concrete Dome structures Americans are used to seeing built around us reactors when the worst American nuclear accident occurred at 3M Island most leaking radiation was kept inside the containment building unlike this Soviet accident where radiation has been measured 600 to 1,000 miles away the TMI accident was nothing compared with this I would speculate that it was very serious and and the reason for that is that they've observed radiation levels 10 times normal from Finland all the way down to Stockholm McKenzie says the type of radioactive material Spot It could only come from the core meaning the accident was a meltdown or something comparable at 3M Island there was a partial meltdown the loss of cooling water led to fuel getting so hot it melted but the core was contained by that thick concrete container building in the Soviet accident there would be nothing to stop a meltdown the hot core could have melted right into the Earth there are indications the accident could have happened several days ago it would take that long for radiation to drift to Scandinavia and to make the political decision to announce it you can be sure that the decision to to disclose was made at the very highest level undoubtedly by gorbachov himself and probably it took several days for the Soviet leaders to decide how to handle it officially little comment from the president or his AIDS as far as the United States is concerned we don't see any dangerous situation the Soviets claim this is their first nuclear accident but it's known in 1958 a nuclear explosion killed several hundred and left a large area contaminated some 800 miles east of Moscow Washington sources speculate the accident at chal had to be very bad or else the Soviets would never have acknowledged it Roger Peterson ABC News Washington

Channel: ABC News

Views: 526,606

Keywords: Chernobyl, real Chernobyl, Chernobyl nuclear accident, Chernobyl nuclear disaster, radiation, radiation leak, nuclear power plant, Soviet Union, radiation levels, Chernobyl 1986, nuclear meltdown, Chernobyl diaries, what really happened Chernobyl, Chernobyl disaster effects, ABC News, Gorbachev, nuclear fallout, worst nuclear accident, Chernobyl Disaster (Disaster), Chernobyl HBO, 2019, Chernobyl cast, Chernobyl today, true story, history

Id: XmeeEpWxfRY

Length: 4min 26sec (266 seconds)

Published: Wed May 23 2012