Word: chernobyls
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...surface, relations among the nearly 600 delegates to last week's symposium on the nuclear accident at Chernobyl were cordial, detached and scientific. After all, the Soviets had agreed to the extraordinary 62-nation conference, sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in a spirit of international cooperation. Said Chief Soviet Delegate Valeri Legasov: "All our experts understood that the events that happened (at Chernobyl) concerned not just the Soviet Union but the whole world...
...debate was as much about the future of atomic power everywhere as it was about a single plant in the Ukraine. In the months since the Chernobyl blast sent clouds of radioactive debris into the air, 31 Soviet citizens have died and thousands of acres of prime land have been rendered useless. A major goal of the conference was to understand the accident well enough to prevent a recurrence...
...conferees were unable to agree on even so basic a question as how many human lives the Chernobyl accident may claim. Morris Rosen, director of nuclear safety for IAEA, and Dan Beninson, chairman of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, initially predicted that radiation from the disaster would cause as many as 24,000 cancer deaths over the next 70 years. They later reduced their estimate by more than half after further studying the Soviet data. The revision stirred charges that the scientists were bowing to the nuclear power industry. Thomas Cochran, senior scientist at the New York City-based...
...painstaking and dangerous cleanup operation provided a grim backdrop for the Vienna talks. Throughout the week, the Soviets stuck to the assertion in their written report that the accident could easily have been avoided. In a five-hour presentation, Legasov explained that the operators of the Chernobyl reactor, while testing a turbine generator, had systematically disconnected all safety systems. That left nothing to prevent the accident after a huge power surge shot through the facility, setting off explosions and fires. Said Legasov: "The defect of the system was that the designers did not foresee the awkward and silly actions...
Still, the Soviets announced that they have shut down and are modifying about half of the country's 14 RBMK-1000 Chernobyl-type reactors. Legasov said the overhaul will include the addition of more control rods to slow down nuclear fission in the water-cooled reactor core. Operators will have only limited ability to withdraw the rods, and a safer blend of uranium fuel is being developed...