European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 6, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Chernobyl Plant plagued by More serious accidents sunday december 6, 1987 the stars and stripes Page 9 Moscow Dpi Sloppy work practices and poor management supervision has resulted in 36 accidents including three involving an unspecified num Ber of deaths at the chernobyl nuclear Power station in the past 10 months a soviet newspaper said Friday. The chernobyl Complex. 600 Miles Southwest of Moscow was the Lite of the world s worst nuclear Power station Acci Dent in april 1986, when an unauthorized Experiment went haywire resulting in an explosion and an escape of radioactive material that contaminated much of Europe. At least 31 people died in the initial explosion and from radiation sickness afew months afterwards but the newspaper report was the first to mention any further casualties and serious incidents at the Power station since the disaster itself. The socialist Cheskay Industry socialist Industry newspaper Friday said three senior communist party and Power station officials have been disciplined in connection with the recent spate of accidents including one that involved the apparent mishandling of the radioactive fuel rods at reactor no. 2 one of the station s two operating re actors. The newspaper did not specify the exact number of deaths or How they occurred but did hint that at least some of the fatalities were connected with Radia Tion exposure and the mishandling of radioactive fuel rods in the pressurized water Type reactors. Socialist Industry said the news of the accidents deaths and the disciplining of the four officials was contained in a re port of the local party Secretary of the City of Slautich a City that was built after the april 1986 Accident to House the workers of the chernobyl station. The report of the local City party Secre tary v. Lukyanenko was Given during the plenum of the Kiev Region party commit tee last week the newspaper said. Today much has been done attestation to increase the level of Security at the working reactors and to increase their reliability and safely. But not everything is done to bring up the High sense of responsibility for the entrusted work of every staff member the news paper quoted Luk Ananko s report As say ing. What sounds an alarm is the violations of technical discipline which has not been worked out with the personnel. There is no acute reaction to that in the party committee and in the shop part organizations. The response appears Only after pressure. In 10 months in our organizations at the Power station36 accidents including three involving deaths took place. Inspire of the measures taken up to now cases of irradiation Are not halted the report said. In june the Bureau of the City party committee had to consider the course violations which took place when the personnel extracted fuel Assembly 50-21 in Block two the report said. That indicates an Accident with the fuel rods. In that Type of Accident Radia Tion exposure is possible. No one can say for sure until we see the details of the report one Western Diplomat said. The report also sited deficiencies in management and work habits of employees at chernobyl. The Issue of labor safety is not an immediate task of the administration. Personal responsibility of the workers is Low the report said. The actual reports of the deaths and disciplinary actions taken against the officials identified As m. Mants the Plant s director e. Ignatenko the director general of the Industrial smal Gama lion bomb int set up to Deal with the disaster s aftermath and e. Borodavka the communist party Secretary of the chernobyl Power station were contained Midway through a Long technical article dealing with party affairs. What Type of punishment meted out to the three officials was not specified but no criminal action appears to have been taken. The wording of the report implied that they received nothing More than an official party reprimand. In july six Power station and party officials were sentenced to lengthy labor Camp terms for their part in the 1986 disaster. A soviet court sitting in Cher Nobyl found the six guilty of Gross errors in the disaster that has Cost the soviet state at least $3 billion in lost production Power output and other damages. Besides the 31 reported deaths 237 people were hospitalized and 135,000 people had to be evacuated from a 19-mile area around the Plant. The court found that at the time of the Accident work and safety procedures at the country s largest nuclear Power com plex were shockingly poor. After the disaster officials had to shutdown the station for decontamination. Several months after the Accident re actors in Block one and two were re started but operations in Block three have yet to resume. Block three shared Cooling and ventilation systems with the Block four reactor that exploded. Barents see soviet nuclear plants and major cities a Sites of nuclear plants cities Over 1 million population Baltic Leningrad Kalinin a Kostroma Ignalino a a pou4 Smolenska 1 chernobyl kursk West a a Ukraine he Khmelnitskiy Kharkov Odessa a Zaporozhye m�mm4/ Niko ave Sverdlovsk a. Bn-600 Belo Yarsky 0moscor Gorky a a a Kizhne Kamsky trait  Fol ask Kuy Bashev Voronezh Balak ovo user Crimea Schevchenko \ a Ararat n?88 Valley source