Learn more about the Chernobyl Disaster through historical newspapers from our archives. The DOE team provided the analytical support to the U.S. delegation for the August, 1986 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and to subsequent international meetings. Chernobyl is a wonderfully written, beautifully acted masterpiece which tells the story of the terrible nuclear accident which occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the USSR in 1986. This incident has been referred to as the world's worst nuclear power plant accident.THE ACCIDENTAccording to reports filed with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on April 25, 1986, technicians at the Chernobyl plant launched a poorly executed experiment to test the emergency electricity supply to one of its Soviet RBMK type design reactors. (One of the authors of the idea of returning children and pregnant women to the danger zoneYuri Israelwas subsequently awarded the Order of Lenin for Chernobyl.), Secret recipes from the Politburo on the use of radioactive meat and milk are undoubtedly one of the strongest parts of the Kremlin-Chernobyl bestseller. This document relays a conversation with a specialist in nuclear energy who explains how gaps at the joints of pipes are causing problems in the blocks at both the Chernobyl and Kursk plants. December 19th, 1978 Director of the Chernobyl District Department of the Ukr. The authors conclude that the entire intelligence community believes that the fatality figure of two is preposterous. Intelligence analysis estimates the number of people in the immediate vicinity of the reactor at the time of the accident to be around 100. But the radiation that spread in the aftermath of the explosion killed thousands in the months and years to. The Soviet Union knew the Chernobyl nuclear plant was dangerous and covered up emergencies there before the 1986 disaster, the Ukrainian authorities said as they released documents to mark the . This memo reviews early Soviet information and information received through U.S. intelligence and speculates about the number of fatalities on the day of the explosion. Vorotnikov, V.I. May 3rd, 1986 Deputy Head of the 6th Department of the KGB Administration Lieut. Image: The first photograph of Unit Four after the accident, shot from a helicopter by Chernobyl plant photographer Anatoly Rasskazov, at approximately 3.00pm on April 26 1986 (Anatoly Rasskazov/Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum). It goes on to discuss the increased global use of nuclear energy and requests information from the USSR on the cause of the explosion so that the other nuclear countries can avoid such an accident. In special cases, it is possible to increase these standards to levels exceeding the previous by 50 times. The four reports are Comparison of DOE's Hanford N-Reactor with the Chernobyl Reactor (1986); Nuclear Power Safety International Measures in Response to Chernobyl Accident (1988); Nuclear Power Safety Chernobyl Accident Prompted Worldwide Actions but Further Efforts Needed (1991); and Construction of the Protective Shelter for the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor Faces Schedule Delays, Potential Cost Increases, and Technical Uncertainties (2007).UNITED STATES CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS634 pages of transcripts from three Congressional hearings: The Chernobyl Accident Hearing before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Ninety-ninth Congress, 2nd session on the Chernobyl accident and implications for the domestic nuclear industry, June 19, 1986; The Effects of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant hearing before the Subcommittee on Nuclear Regulation, United States Senate, One Hundred Second Congress, second session, July 22, 1992; and The legacy of Chernobyl, 1986 to 1996 and beyond hearing before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, One Hundred Fourth Congress, second session, April 23, 1996. goo, Chernobyl CIA Document on the Ukraine taking control of the area of Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Page from a Department of Defense report concerning the Chernobyl nuclear disaster fatalities, Chernobyl Disaster timeline, third page of a chronology from a Department of Energy report, Chernobyl Disaster timeline, fourth page of a chronology from a Department of Energy report, Chernobyl Shelter Project GAO report graphic shows proposed new shelter and its relative height to the State of Liberty and the enclosed existing shelter, Chernobyl Shelter Project GAO report information about the cost And funding of a Chernobyl shelter. Picador. It uses information collected undercover to monitor the level of panic among students. This document relays data received from chemical protection troops on radioactivity levels in Pripyat. Quote from Mieczyslaw Sowinski, head of the Polish atomic energy agency, explaining why Poland refrained from mentioning high radiation levels measured on April 27, 1986 (Kaufman and New York Times 1986). "Thirty-seven years ago, the Chernobyl NPP accident left a huge scar on the whole world," Zelenskyy said in . (HDA SBU, Fond 16, Sprava 1097). April 26, 2019, Reactor No. On Sunday April 26, 1986, at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat, Ukraine, reactor #4 exploded. In this document, an unnamed KGB agent reports on the situation two weeks after the incident, including transportation and journalist suppression methods. The report contains further reports of violations of technical regulations at the Chernobyl NPP. Ron DeSantis was in Japan on Monday to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other officials as part of his four-nation trade mission seen . SSR KGB. Adam Higgonbotham, author of Midnight in Chernobyl, introduces parts of the collection in an essay for Sources & Methods. . Almost 200 tonnes of melted nuclear fuel rods remain within the damaged reactor. Secret. April 27th, 1986 Notice from the Operative Plenipotentiary of the 2nd Division of the 6th Administration of the Ukr. This note explains the processes of localizing the effects of the accident, lead deposits in the area, and the evacuation of collective farms and the city of Chernobyl. July 3rd, 1986 Gordienko, 'Notice on "OS" [Environmental Conditions]'. They never returned. Geist explores the role of management's failure in the Chernobyl incident in this academic article. May 2nd, 1986 Deputy Head of the 6th Department of the KGB Administration Lieut. The conclusion about the possibility of the return of children and pregnant women to the areas where the radiation levels fall within the limits of 2 to 5 mR/hr. There is an active expulsion of graphite The Politburo approves urgent measures to deal with the fire and contamination and forms the Politburo Operational Group on Chernobyl. Articles and. Is the leak continuing? (Schmemann and New York Times Service 1986). (HDA SBU, Fond. The following is how the Deputy Prosecutor-General of the USSR V.I. Chernobilsky Dossier KGB. Soviet Union. It included reviews of studies carried out on cancers, noncancer diseases, immune and genetic effects, and reproductive and children's health, as well as evidence-based recommendations for national health authorities and for further research. Col. Aksenov, 'Notice of emergency incident.'" Samoilov, Head of the 3rd Department of the 6th Service of the KGB Administration of the USSR for the City of Moscow, 'Information about Several Problems in the Use of Atomic Energy Stations in the USSR'. The President of Russia Boris Yeltsin had already banned the CPSU, and some members of its politburo were contemplating life in KGB cells. Almost all of the working copies of Politburo sessions are still secret in the Russian Presidential Archive. Russian State Archive of Contemporary History, Fond 89, The first official report of the accident to the Politburo misrepresents the situation completely. In all, 50 million curies of radiation were. Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant AccidentCIA, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Congressional, GAO, and Foreign Press Monitoring Files. Ligachev, V.I. "Notice: Information from places of evacuation." The document lists the extent to which various information related to Chernobyl which should be classified, and for what reasons certain items may be shared. In areas with radiation levels of less than 5 mR/hr it is critical to introduce strict control for radioactive food, especially milk., It is interesting to compare with the secret Report of the head of the Chemical Corps of the Ministry Defense of the USSR V. Pikalov at a meeting of the CC CPSU on June 15, 1987.: in the red forest, because of the turn-down and the conservation of the forest, the radiation levels are lowered from 5 Roentgen/hr to 7.5 mR/hr, which surpasses admissible values by 15 times. Red was the name of the forest close to the NPP, which had been killed by a nuclear blast. Despite the wide spread of radiation, Soviet officials at first said very little publicly about what happened at Chernobyl. Tracking Chernobyl's effects on wildlife Evolutionary ecologist Germn Orizaola Pereda analyses how species have been affected, 35 years after the world's worst nuclear accident. Secret. On May 2, 1986, one journalist demanded the most basic facts: What happened? Photograph by Anatoly Rasskazov, April 26, 1986, courtesy of Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum. (HDA SBU, Fond 11, Sprava 992, Tom 29). In the morning the leadership formed a State Commission headed by Boris Shcherbina, which departed for Chernobyl later in the day. A reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in northern Ukraine exploded, spreading radioactive clouds all over Europe and a large part of the globe. During the experiment the technicians violated several rules in place for operating the reactor.During the experiment, the emergency shutdown system was turned off. National Security Archive. Obtained through FOIA from the Central Intelligence Agency. August 30th, 1986 Order from the Chair of the Committee of State Security [KGB] of the USSR, 'On Measures to Strengthen the Counter-Intelligence Work at Atomic Energy Units in connection with the Accident at the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station' (HDA SBU, Fond. 2023 The Wilson Center. This document discusses weaknesses in the technical designs of nuclear power plants in the USSR and their potential consequences, concluding that the Leningrad, Kursk, and Chernobyl plants are dangerous. SSR KGB Administration for the City of Kiev and Kiev Oblast, Lieutenant Colonel Comrade Iu. Protocol No. Up to 30 percent of Chernobyl's 190 metric tons of uranium was now in the atmosphere, and the Soviet Union eventually evacuated 335,000 people, establishing a 19-mile-wide "exclusion zone" around the reactor.. At least 28 people initially died as a result of the accident, while more than 100 were injured. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. This report explains ecological and security problems which arose several years later as a result of the Chernobyl accident, as well as areas for improvement in control of the reactor site and medical testing of the local population. On the other hand, for someone analyzing a political or environmental issue, reports and pertinent news releases will be helpful sources of reliable data. According to Malcolm Browne, a journalist for The New York Times, Sweden was ideally situated to peek under Moscows veil of secrecy surrounding the Chernobyl accident due its close proximity to the USSR. May 6, 1986. (HDA SBU, Fond 65, Sprava 1, Tom 37). April 26th, 1986 Untitled notice about the categories of the population and body parts most susceptible to radiation. May 12th, 1986 Untitled notice on public attitudes toward the Chernobyl accident (HDA SBU, Fond 11, Sprava 992, Tom 29). This document discusses weaknesses in the technical designs of nuclear power plants in the USSR and their potential consequences, concluding that the Leningrad, Kursk, and Chernobyl plants are extremely dangerous. Technological Momentum and System Failure. Protocol No. Archive of the President of the Russian Federation. On April 29, 1986, the International Herald Tribune ran a front-page headline Nuclear Accident At Soviet Plant Causes Injuries. Much of the article described what was known about the Chernobyl accident, but the concluding paragraph shifts the narrative to the Three Mile Island accident, termed The worst commercial nuclear accident in the United States (Compiled by Our Staff from Dispatches 1986). M.A. The report quotes students mainly from the Middle East who discuss various rumors about the cause of the accidentthat it was political revenge, punishment for Communists, or karma. use it Skip to document Ask an Expert Sign inRegister Sign inRegister Home Ask an ExpertNew My Library Discovery Institutions Keiser University Maryville University Miami Dade College Subsequent analysis revealed that the radioactive dust on the Forsmark reactor workers shoes was not due to a malfunction at Forsmarkor any other nuclear reactor in Scandinavia. September 15th, 1982 Chair of the Committee of State Security [KGB] of the Ukrainian SSR to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, 'Informational Message for 14 September 1982'. He alleged that thousands of casualties and widespread, long-term radioactive contamination occurred as the result of an explosion involving nuclear waste stored in underground shelters.The general consensus today is that a combination of events, rather than a single isolated incident at Kyshtym nuclear energy complex caused the radioactive contamination in the area. These protocols, and all the granular details of how the Soviet leadership dealt with the accident day-by-day, are available to scholars and citizens due to the courage and decisiveness of a brave Russian journalist and subsequently member of the first democratically elected Supreme Soviet, Alla Yaroshinskaya, who published these protocols after the August 1991 coup in Moscow. Alexievich, S. (2006). Archive of the President of the Russian Federation (APRF), Record of Session of the CC CPSU Politburo, 28 April 1986, working copy, published in Rudolph Pikhoia, Sovetskii Soyuz: Istoriya Vlasti, 1945-1991 (Novosibirsk: Sibirskii Khronograph, 2000), pp. The primary research for Midnight In Chernobyl encompassed hundreds of hours of interviews with scores of eye . (HDA SBU, Fond 11, Sprava 992, Tom 6). He calmly uttered: in order to get the authorization to copy documents, I must address the organization that classified them. As a result, one Finnish citizen, Jorma K. Miettinen a Helsinki University professor, lamented: Americans think Finland is subservient to the Soviet Union (Kaufman and New York Times 1986). The Higginbotham documents particularly detail the reaction of the Kiev authorities, ranging from the Council of Ministers to the Ukrainian Communist Party Central Committee to the Ministry of Health to the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. 9. Voices from Chernobyl: The oral history of a nuclear disaster (K. Gessen, Trans.). In fact, the number of people on the night shift was minimal and actual fatalities did total two on the first day of the accident. V. (HDA SBU, Fond 11, Sprava 992, Tom 6). 7. The Union collapsed. Former Adviser to the President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin. All but the main fire in the graphite moderator material still inside unit 4 were extinguished in a few hours. Over time, the shelter has weakened; rain entering through holes and cracks has caused corroding.By 2006 the plans for a new shelter was about 7 years behind schedule, with a completion target date of no sooner than 2012. The documents published today complement a number of other important accounts of Chernobyl. This document discusses the violation of technical rules of reinforcement and concrete work in the construction of the Chernobyl plant, concluding that these deficiencies will diminish the quality of the energy output. Excerpt from the International Herald Tribune May 2, 1986 (Schmemann and New York Times Service 1986). Ukrainian KGB Intelligence Report on students studying abroad during the Chernobyl accident. () In the course of slaughtering large cattle and pigs, it is established that washing the animals with water and also the removal of their lymph nodes results in obtaining meat suitable for consumption. It is interesting, what did they do with the removed lymph nodes? The 1987 report Radioactive Fallout from the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor AccidentThe Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory performed a variety of measurements to determine the level of the radioactive fallout on the western United States. (In 1991 in the USSR, Xerox copying machines were still inaccessible not only to ordinary citizens, but, as one can see, to members of parliament.) This collection contains Ukrainian and national KGB reports, Communist Party directives, and Ukrainian Academy of Science measurements which discuss technical issues with the plant, details of the accident, and emergency responses across the republic. Abramowitz, M. (1986, May 2). Chernyaevs notes reveal the central leaderships obsession with presenting a proper image of the Soviet system to the West, especially in how it is dealing with the Chernobyl accident. Image: A helicopter sprays a decontamination liquid nearby the Chernobyl reactor in 1986. 35+ YEARS OF FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACTION, USSR Ministry of Energy, "Regarding the Accident at Reactor No. Extraordinary session of the CC CPSU Politburo. 4: The Story of Chernobyl in Documents. It was not until alarms from radiation detectors in other countries, many hundreds of miles away, forced the Soviets to admit to the Chernobyl accident.Radioactive material was dispersed over 60,000 square miles of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. These materials were introduced by Higginbotham in an essay titled An Explosion Occurred in Power Unit No. Wilson Center Digital Archive. The Nuclear Proliferation International History Project and the Cold War International History Project, both part of the Wilson Centers History and Public Policy Program, have published new translations of 28 documents about the Chernobyl nuclear accident from the archives of the Ukrainian Security Service, or the Ukrainian KGB. () Secretary of the CC CPSU M.S. Constructed and maintained by the Wilson Centers History and Public Policy Program, the Digital Archive contains declassified historical materials from archives around the world, including diplomatic cables, high level correspondence, meeting minutes, intelligence estimates, and more. The brochure discusses the reasons for the accident and compares Chernobyl and Soviet-style plants to those in the West, concluding that the French and American reactors possess superior safety standards. Arthur Purcell, director of the Washington Resource Policy Institute, emphasized Chernobyls damning contribution to the international nuclear policy debate; the Chernobyl accident demonstrated that nuclear power is inherently unsafe (Purcell 1986). State Archives Department of the Security Service of Ukraine. Allow the re-evacuation (return) of children and pregnant women to all residential areas where the combined calculated dose will not exceed 10 rem for the first year (237 residential areas in total), and there where the calculated doses of radiation exposure (without the restriction of the consumption of contaminated foods) surpasses 10 rem,from October 1, 1986(174 residential areas) Israel, Burenkov, Aleksandrov. This is despite the fact that a month earlier the head of the State Committee for Hydrometeorology Yuri Israel reported: Areas with radiation levels higher than 5 mR/hr () are recognized as dangerous for people to live in. Top Secret Chernobyl: The Nuclear Disaster through the Eyes of the Soviet Politburo, KGB, and U.S. Intelligence. April 24, 2023 / 9:56 AM / AP. May 12, 1986. () June 23, 1986. Copyright: IAEA Imagebank. January 22nd, 1991 Commission on Questions of the Chernobyl Catastrophe, Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, 'On Some Problems in the Elimination of the Consequences of the Accident at the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station'. Photo Credit: Ukrainian Society for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (USFCRFC), The book by Alla Yaroshinskaya, "Chernobyl. (HDA SBU, Fond 11, Sprava 991, Tom 1). An Explosion Occurred in Power Unit No. (HDA SBU, Fond 9, Sprava 73). A routine test at the power plant went horribly wrong, and two massive. These meeting minutes detail the various forms of protection against radiation undertaken in and around the city of Kiev following the Chernobyl disaster. On 26 April 1986, the Number Four reactor at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant in what then was the Soviet Union during improper testing at low-power, resulted in loss of control that led to an explosion and fire that demolished the reactor building and released large amounts of radiation into the atmosphere. It affected large areas of the former Soviet Union and even parts of western Europe. Volume 2. Former Peoples Deputy of the USSR Washington, D.C., August 15, 2019 Documents from the highest levels of the Soviet Union, including notes, protocols and diaries of Politburo sessions in the immediate aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, detail a sequence of cover-up, revelation, shock, mobilization, individual bravery, and bureaucratic turf battles in the Soviet reaction, according to the Top Secret Chernobyl e-book published today by the National Security Archive. He states that the remote control equipment (which failed practically immediately because of high levels of radioactivity and had to be replaced with biorobotsSoviet soldiers) has arrived and tells the Group that the brigade of chemical troops will be formed and deployed by May 4. 29. The Nuclear Trojan Horse drawing by Arthur H. Purcell calling for increased, international safety measures to the nuclear power industry (Purcell 1986). 1. The Chernobyl Newspapers Collection offers scholars the most comprehensive collection available for these titles, and features full page-level digitization, complete original graphics, and searchable text, and is cross-searchable with numerous other East View digital resources. The United Kingdom, an Integrating Europe, and the NPT Negotiations, The Jupiter Missiles and the Endgame of the Cuban Missile Crisis: A Matter of Great Secrecy, We Are the Ones Who Manage the Affairs of the People: The Kuomintang Party School and its Legacy on both sides of the Taiwan Strait after 1949, Additional Radio Liberty Documents Now Online, Vietnams Struggles against Chinese Spies, American Spies, and Enemy Ideological Attacks, Cooperation between the North Korean and Polish Security Apparatuses in the 1980s, Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy, Environmental Change and Security Program, North Korea International Documentation Project, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, The Middle East and North Africa Workforce Development Initiative, Refugee and Forced Displacement Initiative, Science and Technology Innovation Program, Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition, An Explosion Occurred in Power Unit No. Top secret", 1992, The book by Politburo member Vitaly Vorotnikov, "This Is How It Went",1995. ByAdam Higginbotham Research Starter encyclopedia article about the Chernobyl nuclear accident. The accident was a result of a failure to observe various safety procedures during the testing of one of the plant's four nuclear reactors. No immediate evacuation followed. Florida Gov. 4: The Story of Chernobyl in Documents CLICK the image or the link below to watch a short abcNEWS segment from April 28, 1986 about the Chernobyl accident. The collection also demonstrates that the government failed to inform the public of the true scope of radiation damage for years after the accident. The accident has left some nearby towns uninhabitable to this day.Radioactivity forced Soviet officials to create a 30-kilometer-wide no-habitation zone around Chernobyl, sealing off Pripyat. Draft Collective European Statement on Chernobyl Implications, National Security Council Jack Matlock Memo on Strategy for US-Soviet Relations, Letter from Science Editor Vladimir Gubarev to the CC CPSU About His Trip to Chernobyl, Minutes of CC CPSU Politburo Session (Anatoly S. Chernyaev notes), FOIA Advisory Committee Oversight Reports. [Authors Note- ! The surge destroyed the core of reactor unit four, containing approximately 200 tons of nuclear fuel. 429-432. The test was meant to measure a turbogenerator's ability to provide in-house emergency power after shutting off its steam supply. Samoilov, Head of the 3rd Department of the 6th Service of the KGB Administration of the USSR for the City of Moscow, 'Information about Several Problems in the Use of Atomic Energy Stations in the USSR' (HDA SBU, Fond 11, Sprava 992, Tom 6). Virginia Gewin. In conclusion, Major Komarevich reports that his informers were instructed to identify and locate those who were spreading these panicked rumors. Chernyaevs notes from the same Politburo session as Document 14 are less detailed than those made by official stenographers, but they capture the heated emotional atmosphere of the meeting and they cover the entire Chernobyl discussion. The Western world was largely dissatisfied by the lack of detail in Moscows statement. He also insists on informing the West and the socialist countries, especially because they are using the same reactors supplied by the USSR. Among those measures are assignments to accurately measure radiation, evacuate citizens from Pripyat, and deploy chemical troops and other emergency management services. The General Secretary calls for individual responsibility of every agency in eliminating the consequences of the accident and emphasizes the social sphere, meaning taking care of the people who are working on decontamination and those who were evacuated from the area. For help citing interviews such as Voices from Chernobyl (below), click here. (Please note, encyclopedias/tertiary sources should NOT be cited in your assignment. This document discusses how radioactivity is measured, radiation safety norms and categories, and the permissible dose of radiation for different groups (i.e., accident responders, plant personnel, local residents). July 24th, 1973 Memo Report from Tiutiunnik, Chief of the Kiev-Sviatoshinskii District Department of the KGB Administration, to the Acting Director of the KGB Administration, Comrade G.I. Click image for link to full article (on Bowdoin network). monument to emergency workers who responded to Chernobyl disaster Some sources state that two people were killed in the initial explosions, whereas others report that the figure was closer to 50. (1986, April 27). This was a shock: the special services were watching all of the deputies actions! Overview from the Dictionary of Environmental Science and Technology. Translated by Sarah Dunn for the National Security Archive. Committee for State Security (KGB), Ukraine. Slavic Review, 74(1), 104126. Col. Aksenov, 'Notice of Emergency Incident' (HDA SBU, Fond 11, Sprava 992, Tom 29). At the same time, Matlock believes that there are ways we can capitalize on this indirectly. He predicts correctly that one could expect an upsurge in generalized anti-nuclear sentiments, unless we act rapidly to lead public opinion. Matlock also outlines a notional proposal for the elimination of nuclear weapons clearly responding to Gorbachevs proposal of January 1986. The posting today begins with Yaroshinskayas essay (written exclusively for this publication) reviewing the Chernobyl story and her own efforts dating back to 1986 to document and expose the lies and the secrecy that surrounded the disaster. This note describes the levels of radiation around the reactor, decontamination techniques, the number of troops involved in the cleanup process. The reactor was being operated with too many control rods withdrawn. 32. The reactor is practically destroyed. Read more, The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War. And suddenly it dawned on me: now the secret Chernobyl protocols will be carried off, even though we, the deputies, have not even had the time to read them yet! In April 2019, Higginbotham published an extremely useful selection of these documents on the Sources and Methods blog of the History and Public Policy Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The Chernobyl disaster, the worst nuclear disaster in history, forced change upon the Soviet government as it was not possible to disguise the damage. Schmid dissects the various competing explanations for the Chernobyl disaster, including operator error, reactor design, and deficiencies in the Soviet system overall, and cites to more than 100 pages of notes on sources. Still, the power plant continued to generate electricity until it was finally shut down in December, 2000.During the first year after the accident, about 25,000 people, mainly Soviet Army troops, were dispatched to the site to clean up the accident. This chapter is from the book titled Producing Power. This document summarizes the specialists' report on the lack of reliability of the reactors at Chernobyl, citing that the lack of protective layers and other structural flaws in the reactor that could lead to radioactive contamination and accidents. Medvedev, an exiled Soviet geneticist, claimed in several articles and books that a "disaster" occurred near Kyshtym in 1957/58. (HDA SBU, Fond 11, Sprava 992, Tom 29). 434-437. Quote from Jorma K. Miettinen, a Finnish Helsinki University professor, lamenting Finlands failure to condemn the USSR (Kaufman and New York Times 1986). Vorotnikov, V.L. Additionally, reports from the USSR suggested that Soviet government officials issued assurances that nothing all that terrible had happened, and the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) issued a far longer dispatch detailing the Three Mile Island accident (Schmemann and New York Times Service 1986).