Re: Sydney Morning Herald says 5000 died of radiation at Chernobyl

[maury <maury@webtexas.com>]

Found the London Telegraph article which was one source of the attribution of

5,000 deaths to the Chernobyl accident. If I can get a response from the

Telegraph or the author, I'll post his source for the number 5,000.



The last data I've seen (within the last year or so) showed 31 deaths and 2,000

cases of thyroid cancer. The thyroid cancers were increasing at the rate of

about 200 per year among folks who were youngsters at the time of exposure in

and following 1986. These cancers are being successfully treated.



Maury Siskel          maury@webtexas.com

===================================



Chernobyl threat ignored for years

    By Askold Krushelnycky in Prague

    (Filed: 08/05/2003)



Senior Soviet officials knew that the Chernobyl nuclear plant was

a disaster waiting to happen but ignored warnings that could have

averted the world's worst civilian nuclear accident.



Ukraine has released more than 100 secret files sent by its branch

of the KGB to the Soviet intelligence organisation' s headquarters

in Moscow saying the plant was fatally flawed from the start.



The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), which replaced the KGB

after independence, said it published the files to commemorate the

17th anniversary of the disaster and to shed more light on it.



One of the four reactors at Chernobyl exploded on April 26, 1986,

after a safety test went wrong. About 5,000 people have died as a

result of the accident, many of them within days of being exposed

to high radiation as they tackled the ensuing fire.



The Ukrainian government estimates that up to five million

Ukrainians suffer health problems as a result of the disaster.

Thousands of people affected demonstrated in the Ukrainian

capital, Kiev, last week to protest at cuts in their state medical

services and pensions.



Scientists say radioactive material released after the explosion

was the equivalent of that produced by 500 atomic bombs the

size of that dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. Contamination spread

over Ukraine, neighbouring Belarus and Russia and reached as far

as Scotland and Wales, where radiation levels from the accident

are still being monitored.



The documents released by the SBU show that Chernobyl

suffered serious flaws beginning at the design stage and that

mistakes continued during building in the 1970s and throughout

its operations. They show that the authorities ignored KGB

warnings that building materials were sub-standard and that

nuclear technicians often ignored safety regulations. There were

29 accidents between 1977 and 1981. A KGB report in January

1979 said: "According to operational data, there were deviations

from design and violations of technology procedures during

building and assembling works. It may lead to accidents." In

September 1982 an accident released what the documents

describe as "significant quantities of radiation".



One document deals with an inspection only weeks before the

disaster, when engineers said the plant was too dangerous and

should be shut.



Maryna Ostapenko, an SBU official, said: "We hope to restore the

historic truth by publishing documents about the station, its

construction and the disaster." The release of the documents is

apparently intended to place responsibility for the Chernobyl

disaster squarely with Moscow. During Soviet times accidents

were almost always kept secret. It was only after the fall of

communism that people learned about deaths in previously

unreported aircraft and train crashes, as well as major disasters

involving pollution and nuclear contamination.

----------------------

 16 December 2000: Ukraine asks for aid as Chernobyl closes for

good



 3 December 2000: I walk inside the hell that was Chernobyl



 6 July 2000: œ476m pledge to encase Chernobyl



                           Related reports



  New radiation leak feared



  External links



  Secret Chernobyl archives  released [2 May '03] -   Bellona

Foundation



  Chernobyl nuclear disaster - Ross Visscher



  Dr Meshkati's page on  Chernobyl - University of   Southern

California



  Chernobyl Children Life  Line



     Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003. Terms &

Conditions of reading.







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