Soviets Admit Misjudging Accident, Delaying Pullout : Thousands Evacuated Second Day

Authorities at the Chernobyl nuclear plant initially failed to accurately assess the danger from a fiery explosion, a Kremlin official said today, and delayed the evacuation of nearby residents for more than 36 hours.

Deputy Premier Boris Y. Shcherbina told a news conference that the accident, which spewed radiation into the atmosphere, probably was triggered by a chemical explosion. He heads the government inquiry into the accident.

The blast occurred at 1:23 a.m., April 26, as the power plant was going into a scheduled shutdown, Shcherbina said.

The evacuation of Pripyat, a town of 25,000 near the Ukrainian plant, did not begin until 2 p.m., April 27, more than 36 hours after the explosion, he said, and the evacuation was completed two hours and 20 minutes later. Earlier, Soviet officials had said four communities with about 49,000 residents were evacuated.

204 People Hospitalized

About 100 people were initially contaminated with radiation, Shcherbina said.

First Deputy Health Minister Yevgeny I. Vorobyev told reporters that 204 people were hospitalized for radiation poisoning, 18 of them in serious condition.

Echoing earlier Soviet statements, Vorobyev said two people were killed in the accident. One worker died after being burned over 80% of his body and another after being hit by a falling object, he said.

Some municipal workers stayed in Pripyat after the accident to keep the city running, but when radiation levels increased, those workers also were evacuated, Shcherbina said.

No Final Conclusion

He said that an investigative government commission was formed and that some of its members arrived near the plant within hours of the accident. They found that “those on the spot did not give necessary evaluation to what took place.”

Shcherbina said the panel has not reached a final conclusion on what had happened at the Chernobyl plant.

“We need some time, some careful calculations. There is too high a price to be mistaken here,” he said, adding that “the most probable cause was the reactor experienced a chemical explosion.”

Shcherbina said 150 workers at Chernobyl were monitoring the three reactors that were shut down as well as checking on conditions at the fourth reactor. He said about 4,000 tons of sand was used to deal with the disaster but did not elaborate.

Sand, Lead, Boron Dropped

Moscow party chief Boris Yeltsin said over the weekend that sacks of sand, lead and boron were being dropped from helicopters onto the crippled reactor to cut radioactivity emissions.

The Communist Party newspaper Pravda said today that an explosion blew apart a building housing an atomic reactor but did not discuss how much radioactivity was released in the accident or give current emission readings.

“An explosion destroyed structural elements of the building housing the reactor and a fire broke out,” Pravda said. “That happened at night. After the explosion the engine room coating took fire. The firemen were fighting the blaze at a height of 30 meters (100 feet).

“Their boots stuck in bitumen that melted because of high temperature.” (Story on Page 10)