Word: reactors
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...days his silence resounded around the world. Then finally last week Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev publicly acknowledged the gravity of the April 26 accident that destroyed a nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl power station in the Ukraine and spread radioactive fallout across the globe. "For the first time ever," Gorbachev declared on Soviet TV, "we have confronted in reality the sinister power of uncontrolled nuclear energy...
...dogged effort by Gorbachev to strike back at foreign critics and limit the severe damage to Soviet prestige caused by the accident and by Moscow's initial refusal to let the rest of the world know what had happened. As workers labored to encase the crippled reactor in concrete and render it harmless, Gorbachev strove to seize the offensive and contain the worst political fallout from the disaster...
...acute radiation sickness. By week's end the death toll had climbed to 13. In all, 299 victims were hospitalized (see box). The Soviet leader said that it was too early to determine the precise cause of the accident, which apparently began with a sudden power surge while the reactor was undergoing maintenance. That was followed by a devastating hydrogen blast and fire and the release of a cloud of radiation. While the mishap's "most serious consequences have been averted," Gorbachev said, "the end is not yet." Noting that the area around the plant remains dangerously contaminated, he added...
...United Nations-affiliated organization based in Vienna. Its three top officials were allowed to fly over the site of the accident. Morris Rosen, the director of the agency's division of nuclear | safety, declared at week's end that the uncontrolled fire at the plant's No. 4 reactor was out, though the molten mass continued to smolder. He also confirmed that the Soviets were tunneling beneath the reactor in an attempt to seal off the damaged unit from below with concrete, thus protecting the underlying ground and water table. Rosen called the effort the first step in a plan...
Rosen confirmed that the accident began with an explosion followed by a severe fire. He said the reactor was undergoing maintenance and operating at only 7% of its power when the mishap occurred. The blast halted all chain reactions in the unit's core, Rosen said, but it remained hot because the radioactive fuel continued to decay...