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22

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———

pT

men a half months after the
toma papaster at Chernobyl,
Cored life is gradually being re-

Silen the vicinity of the
oN : ‘Suffered greatly as a
Sie Of the tragedy, says a top
ne ett, and important les-
tray, the future are being

‘from the experience.

ate accident site itself,
Massive Work still continues. A
fl Concrete slab with cool-
PS has been placed under-
Ode aa destroyed reactor in
kakage Contain any possible
inty pect Tadioactive material
~ Surrounding soil or

ying ground water. Work is
Biopecct Way to enclose what is
‘Oncrete Mber four reactor ina
in tomb, to prevent any

tam

4 Clean

atomic power plant. The _

| ation from being washed -

From Moscow
Jack Phillips

into the nearby Pripyat river by
rainwater.

Radiation levels are daily tel-
exed to the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) from
seven monitoring stations which
cover most of the western USSR.
The nearest such post is 60 kilo-
meters from Chernobyl.

Top Level Scientist

One of the first to-level scien-
tists to reach Chernobyl in the

2

Marketing
Miss Liberty

ae Canadians were lucky
Uber to escape the sappy
“nar of the Statue of Liberty
TV Y” which poured from
¢% Screens for four days as
100¢ Fate America used the
to h

———————

anniversary of the statue

€ddle jingoism and

hock
pate. newly-combined
Ug?®s Daily World in the

Ha Naturally, was also ap-

ri by the wave of phony

: Otism and, in some re-
Side Ng writing, gave another
One '0 the story — proving
Porta again how vitally im-
is "ta working class press

Dw writer Conrad

h.,.- '8 also the year of the
a m -
ic arket massacre’ and
© violence to smash the

’ Post-Chernobyl: normalcy
Gradually being restored

wake of the accident was Valery
Legasov who, as a member of a
special government commission,
was on the scene within a matter
of hours.

Contacted by the Tribune,
Legasov described the difficulty
of dealing with the disaster during
the first days in these terms:
“Nobody anywhere in the world
has had the experience of having
to cope with such an accident.”
Because of the urgency of the
situation, he said, ‘‘decisions had
to be taken and executed imme-
diately. Measures had to be in-
stantly undertaken to prevent a
radioactive poisoning of the
Pripyat river and the water table.

“‘None of the radioactive fuel
was to be allowed to escape from
the deadly blaze,’ said Legasov.

' “This formidable task, unpre-

PHOTO — TASS

7 "hyl'g "Up operations continue: after the April-26 accident at Cher-
Macs ¥ Nuclear power plant Unit 4, the personnel of the plant’s three

tine dy are shown here after a shift. Unit 4, Phillips writes, is now
Closed in a concrete tomb.

cedented in scope and scale, got
underway on April 27, the day fol-
lowing the accident’’.

Of the 100,000 local residents
who were quickly evacuated,
none have so far shown any signs
of acute radiation sickness, said
Legasov. Unfortunately, those
who were on duty in the power
station, and the firefighters who
took part in combating the blaze,

DEG Qe

cS

York harbor making the point
that if the Statue of Liberty
stepped off her pedestal she
would not have the right to
vote, or many other rights.”
Also: ‘‘The Statue of Lib-
erty faces out to sea. But be-
hind its back, some 700,000
New York City children, 40

of the corporate takeover of
the celebration — ‘‘official’’
Miss Liberty dog food(!), for
example.

Time Magazine, which can’t
get enough “‘liberty”’ (three is-
sues running on “‘the party of
the century’’), informs us that
on July 3, 2,700 VIPs and

Foreign reporters watch as Soviet scientists check stream water for
radioactivity in the Makarov district where many evacuees from Cher-
nobyl were relocated. People, livestock and property were evacuated
from a 30-mile radius immediately following the accident. Similar radia-
tion checks are being carried out all across the Ukraine.

were exposed to severe radiation.
Some 300 serious cases were
taken to hospital, of whom 19 died
in the first month.

The Soviet government has
proposed to greatly expand the
role of the IAEA, noted Legasov.
It calls for the establishment of a
mechanism for prompt noti-
fication, and . rapid ‘information
flow in the event of accident or
breakdown in a nuclear plant. It
also proposes a special confer-
ence, under IAEA auspices, of all
countries that maintain atomic
power stations.

While the Soviet Union will de-
dicate itself to making the peace-
ful use of nuclear power as safe as
possible, Legasov said, the main
atomic danger facing humanity is
still the threat of nuclear war —a
catastrophe that could destroy the
human race. ;

Price of Error High
Asked about the future of
atomic power in the USSR after
the tragedy of Chernobyl,
Academician Legasov replied:
‘Regrettably the price of the
error is extremely high. Mind
you, outstanding experts have
always worked in this field, and
particular attention has always
been paid to safety in our country.
Nevertheless, the accident took
place. It has been costly for us,
and we are hurting. We must draw

the critical lessons from it.”

“‘American Best’ special is-
sue: ‘‘What does America do

period can be renewed by
Minister of Law and Order;

best? Brag.” e Detainees may be held
incommunicado;
e Detainees may be subjected
The press to dietary or corporal punish-
and apartheid ment by prison officers or a

: magistrate;
So running scared are South

Africa’s racist rulers, they’ve
decided to ban everything op-
posed to their system, or likely
to give publicity or aid in any
way those opposed to
apartheid.

That’s a big order given that
the overwhelming majority of
humankind think apartheid
and its proponents to be little
short of monsters.

e No publication of the names
of detainees without official
permission;
e The Minister of Law and
Order may ban newspapers.

e Fines of R20,000 or 10 years
in jail for infringement of the
clamps.

e The courts may not chal-
lenge any of the clamps.

e Journalists may be banned
from any area.

e News reports on the con-
duct of the security forces may

Here are today’s restrictions
on South Africa’s press. As
horrendous as you will see

they are, remember, these test d
clamps are for the unbanned senate
press: e Dissemination or publica-

tion of a wide range of ac-

Wo
the Sing class movement for
“our day.

per cent of all the city’s chil-
dren, live in families with in-
comes below the poverty
line.”

Komorowskisaid muchmore
on this subject, as did other
PDW writers some of whom
chronicled the sickening story

|

;

:

|

0

a Orowski told his readers:
:

iz

| aby it the mid-1880s, speeches
the glories of liberty and
©m rang hollow .. . at the
unveiling of the statue the
€n’s ’ Sufferage _Move-

Sailed a boat around New:

i
Hl Wo

Ment

corporate bigwigs munched
canapés on Governor’s Island.
Their admission was either
$10,000 a couple or a corporate
contribution of from $3 to $5-
million. A real people’s party!

Small wonder a Time reader
wrote in response to an earlier

e No pictures or drawings of
unrest, strikes or boycotts;

e No pictures or drawings of
the conduct of security forces
in the maintenance of public
order;

e Dentention without a war-
rant for 14 days is legal. This

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JULY 16, 1986 e 5

tivities defined as ‘subversive’
are banned.

Added ‘to countless other
major emergency powers’
laws, bannings, jailings and re-
pression, these today rate
South Africa as the world’s
worst mass prison.

iis?
i

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