Plutonium and other radioactive wastes from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident are spreading through the topsoil, vegetation and reservoirs of a broad swath of the Soviet Union and continue to threaten the health of a growing number of people who inhale or ingest them, according to a senior Soviet scientist.
Yevgeny F. Konoplya, director of the Radiobiology Institute of the Byelorussian Academy of Sciences, said in an interview that the institute's research shows that radioactive contamination, spread by wind and water, is menancing people hundreds of miles from the damaged reactor previously thought to be at minimal risk."We have challenged the government," he said in an interview at the Soviet Embassy last week. "We said the situation is more difficult than has been presented" in Soviet government statements and previous analyses of the health effects of the world's worst nuclear accident.
There is no scientific consensus on the long-term human health consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. The official death toll from the fire and explosion at the reactor is 31, mostly among firefighters who battled the blaze unprotected against the lethal doses of radiation released by the blast.
Reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the World Health Organization and an International Red Cross team have found that fears of widespread illness are greater than the apparent reality. They said Soviet citizens have been attributing many illnesses to presumed radiation exposure when no such link has been demonstrated, and suggested that anxiety and stress were responsible for some reported illnesses.