Soviet Union More Fallout From Chernobyl

To a world that received the initial news with shock and foreboding, the explosion and fire at the Soviet Union's Chernobyl nuclear plant suddenly became as close as wind and rain could carry it last week--and as menacing as a nightmare. While Soviet authorities insisted that there was little to worry about outside the Ukraine and neighboring regions, the cloud of deadly radioactive dust from Unit No. 4 that first spread over Scandinavia and Eastern Europe now crossed oceans and land masses, falling on an ever widening range of food and water supplies in dozens of countries. It also continued to poison the political and diplomatic atmosphere.

Concerns rose sharply over the safety of residents of Kiev, 80 miles from the disaster, and the surrounding area. Though officials first said the April 26 accident posed no danger to the third largest Soviet city (pop. 2.4 million), Kievans were told last week to wash often and keep their windows closed. They were further warned against eating lettuce and swimming outdoors. In the city, water trucks hosed down streets to wash away radioactive dust, and police conducted spot checks for radiation. Kiev's 250,000 schoolchildren will be let out of classes two weeks early for summer vacation so that they can be evacuated from the area.

Packed trains from the beleaguered Ukrainian capital streamed into Moscow during the week. Many Kiev passengers were arriving to join families for Friday celebrations of Victory Day, a national holiday marking the defeat of Nazi Germany, but many others were fleeing radiation from Chernobyl. Spokesmen at Moscow's Kievsky Station said extra trains had to be added to handle the crush. Said a Kiev passenger who arrived with two young children and identified herself only as Svetlana: "We started to believe that it might be dangerous for our children at home. They can stay with their grandmother until we know whether it will be safe for them to return." She added, "Most of the people are calm, but those with young children and pregnant women are getting concerned."

Evidence of the danger that people in the Kiev area may be facing came from some distant sources. Experts found surprisingly high radiation levels, for example, in members of a Western Michigan University tour group that had visited Kiev two days after the mishap. Tests by health technicians at a Consumers Power nuclear plant near South Haven, Mich., showed that 14 of the tourists had absorbed almost 1,500 millirems of radiation, or 50 times the amount in a chest X ray. Robert English, corporate health physicist for Consumers Power, said that the Americans faced minimal long-term health hazards. However, some people living in the immediate vicinity of the reactor may have risked death or, at the very least, severe radiation burns.

Like a biblical calamity, the impact of the accident seemed to be felt everywhere. Among the countries affected:

ITALY. Border patrols halted 32 freight cars loaded with cattle, sheep and horses from Poland and Austria for nearly a week before forcing them to return. Worried inspectors found abnormally high levels of radiation in many of the 908 animals in the shipment. Italy later banned imports of meat, livestock and vegetables from most of Eastern Europe.