462 



Greenpeace Vladivostok Report 

 6 November 1991 



radioactivity has been migrating outwards into Razboynik Bay aixl the western passage of Strelok 

 Bay. Cobalt-60 has been detected as far away as Abrek Bay to the north and Konyushkova Bay 

 in the south. The report says, the use of two floating drydocks and other vessel tra£Bc is 

 continuing to spread the radioactivity in the bottom sediments. 



The size of the accident and the magnitude of the clean-up would suggest some ofGdal 

 monitoring of the health of the workers and residents of the area would have occurred. But, 

 during Greenpeace's visit no such information was forthcoming. In fact, residents complain the 

 health effects of the accident are being dismissed or oovered-up. 



One worker at the plant at the time of the explosion recently complained to Soviet TV 

 that doctors in the area do not attribute blood diseases to radiation exposure. Residents of the 

 region say the examination of the chfldren in the Dunay and Temp settlements was superficial and 

 cannot be trusted. They also say that military personnel used in the dean-up were conscripts. 

 Residents thought no effort had been made to track the health of these people after they were 

 released from service. 



D. Secrecy and Suspicions 



As late as 1969 the military continued to deny a nuclear accident had occurred. In 1969, 

 General Yazov, the then Chief of the armed forces, toM a Chazma plant worker who had 

 witnessed the accident that it had not happened. 



In the summer of 1990 news about the accident finally began to appear in the Soviet 

 press. On 17 July 1990 Izvestiya publisbed an open letter to Fleet Admiral Chemavin by V. 

 Perovskiy, former commander of the survivability division of the Leninskiy Komsomol, the first 

 Soviet nuclear-powered submarine [translated in FBIS-SOV, 18 July 1990]. 



Perovskiy, in complaining about the safety of nuclear-powered submarines, noted their 

 reactors are most dangerous during the refuelling process, and that the smallest ni«r«lf«i can lead 

 to serious consequences. He coiKluded, *How this all ends is well known from the tragic example 

 of the refuelling of a Pacific Fleet submarine.' 



Since then there have been other brief mentions in the Soviet press, most notably by 

 Sobesednik (April 1991), which said it involved a thermal explosion of the reactor of submarine 

 project 670 due to accidental removal of control rods from a reactor during refuelling. 



In the aftermath of the October 1991 Greenpeace visit, the Primonkii Giemobyl story has 

 gained more attentioiL The Washington Post ran a story based on some of Greenpeace's 

 findings, and the Soviet publication Trud also did, by Soviet standards, an extensive story 

 providing new details about the accident (see attached Washington Post and TASS articles). 



Obviously, much more is now known about this accident and its aftermath. Yet, the 

 history of secrecy or lies on the part of the military and the authorities has left local residents very 



8 



