Today in History: Soviet Union publicly announced the Chernobyl disaster
On 28 April 1986, close to 68 hours after the disaster, the Soviet Government finally announced the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
The Soviet Government was only coaxed into acknowledging that there had been a nuclear plant accident at Chernobyl after radiation was detected at a Swedish plant over 1 000km away and the Swedish Government announced it would write a report for the International Atomic Energy Authority.
The accident, an explosion in Reactor 4, occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat in the Ukraine in the early hours of 26 April 1986.
Despite severe radiation leakage, evacuation only commenced on 27 April.
The radiation from the explosion was so severe that within 24 hours two people had died and 52 had been hospitalised.
The cause of the heightened radiation levels baffled scientists as the Soviet Union continued to deny its involvement in the radiation leakage.
It would take the setting off of an alarm that detected high radiation levels at the Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant in Sweden for them to admit to the accident.
When the Swedish Government first approached them, the Soviet Government denied being the source of the radiation. They maintained this stance until they were advised that a report was being compiled by the Swedes to be sent to the International Atomic Energy Authority.
Close to 68 hours after the accident, the Soviet Government announced the accident in a 20-second announcement during a television programme called Vremya. At 9.02pm, they simply announced the following:
“There has been an accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. One of the nuclear reactors was damaged. The effects of the accident are being remedied. Assistance has been provided for affected people. An investigative commission has been set up.”
Following the announcement, the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) began discussing other nuclear incidents (particularly American) to draw attention away from Chernobyl.
The mention of the forming of a commission led people to believe the accident was a lot more serious than what was being portrayed by the Government.
Today, 32 years later, the immediate area around the plant is still heavily poisoned with radiation while there are several people who now live on the boundaries of the 30km exclusion zone.
The entire cleanup is predicted by the Ukrainian Government to be complete by 2065.
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