BBC NEWS April 2203: “Secret KGB archives released in Ukraine show that there were problems with the Chornobyl nuclear plant before the 1986 explosion – the world’s worst civilian nuclear disaster. The 121 documents – dating from 1971 to 1988 – include a report from 1984, which notes deficiencies in the third and fourth reactors, and also the poor quality of some equipment sent from Yugoslav companies. There are also references to an incident at the plant in 1982, in which small doses of radiation were released. The explosion on 26 April on the Fourth Reactor released 100 times the amount of radiation of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki put together. The Chornobyl accident led directly to the deaths of 30 workers at the reactor site, caused the hospitalisation of hundreds of others and exposed about 6.7 million people to radiation fall-out, according to the World Health Organization. This led to a 10-fold increase in thyroid cancer among children in affected areas.
The declassified KGB archives were published on the internet site of Ukraine’s Security Service on the eve of the 17th anniversary of the disaster. They contain a report by the Ukrainian KGB directorate to Moscow on systematic safety breaches during construction works between 1976 and 1979.”
Yuriy Shcherbak, a Ukrainian Doctor of Medicine, and writer became known internationally because of his documentary novel about the Chornobyl tragedy. His “Chornobyl” which contains multiple interviews with the participants of the event was published as early as 1987 in the US, Canada, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Japan, and other countries. Shcherbak provides invaluable insights into the events in Kyiv and Ukraine at the time of Chornobyl construction. Here is just one example from the book:
“Precisely a month before the accident, on 27 March 1986, in the newspaper Literaturna Ukraina, the organ of the Union of Ukrainian Writers, there appeared L. Kovalevska’s article ‘Not a Private Affair.’ It should be recalled that for several years the newspaper had already had a permanent column ‘The Literaturna Ukraina Eye on the Chernobyl Power Station,’ clarifying the various events in the life of the power station. This article, which was fated to create such a sensation all over the world (after Chornobyl the Western mass media vied with each other to quote it), at first attracted no attention.
L. Kovalevska’s article had no relevance to the operation of the fourth block of the Chornobyl power station; but many people, hearing of her article through rumors, have remained until now convinced of the opposite. The author concentrated the fire of her criticism – very professional and uncompromising criticism – on the construction of the fifth block, whose completion target had been reduced from three to two years. L. Kovalevska cited blatant facts of irresponsibility and shoddy work: for example, in 1985 suppliers had fallen short by 2,358 tonnes of metal components. And what they supplied had most often been defective… Furthermore, 326 tonnes of defective fine-mesh sheathing for the spent nuclear fuel depository came from the Volga Metal Components Works. And around 220 tonnes of defective pillars were sent for constructing the depository from the Kashin Metal Components Works.
I consider that one of the reasons for the Chornobyl power station accident was the abnormal situation that developed there. A “casual” person could not get in there. Even an exceptionally intelligent person or a first-dass specialist. You see, in the management, there were whole dynasties, and nepotism flourished. The wages were high, they got them through unhealthy conditions of work and this was done via a ‘dirty network.’ Even the workers wrote about the utter nepotism there. They were friends, acquaintances. If you criticized one, they would all rush to his defense without trying to get to the bottom of the affair.”
Muscovy-Russia in her usual style did criminally sloppy work building a nuclear plant in dangerous proximity to Ukraine’s capital and then chose to conduct a senseless experiment on the most flawed reactor. Can it really be just a coincidence?
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