Voices Concern for Those Hurt in Accident : Gorbachev, at Chernobyl, Stresses Safety

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, making his first visit to the site of the world’s most serious nuclear accident, on Thursday urged the utmost caution in developing atomic energy and the strictest safeguards to prevent future accidents.

“All power stations must be kept in such a state (of security) that nothing of this kind can happen again,” Gorbachev declared as he toured the Chernobyl nuclear power station.

An explosion and fire at one of Chernobyl’s four nuclear reactors in April, 1986, killed 31 people at the plant, 50 miles north of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. More than 200 people were hospitalized, and a cloud of radioactive particles spread all over Europe and to North America.

Inquires About Safety

Touring the plant, three of whose four reactors are still operating, Gorbachev repeatedly asked engineers, technicians and senior officials about safety, and he was repeatedly assured that greater precautions had been taken to prevent future accidents.

The Soviet leader also stressed the government’s commitment to care for those injured in the accident, to monitor the health of the area’s residents and provide them with long-term medical care and to continue the cleanup.

“We should take care of those who were subjected to radiation and who are still sick,” Gorbachev said, responding to recent criticism that the government seemed to be forgetting Chernobyl’s living victims, who are suffering from radiation. “We should not stop just after examining them. We should continue caring for them.”

Gorbachev’s visit, part of a weeklong tour of the Ukraine, was televised at length on the national evening news and appeared intended to underscore the Soviet leadership’s commitment to nuclear safety and environmental protection, two increasingly important issues here.

Although nuclear safety officials say that radioactivity around the plant is now normal, serious problems persist nearly three years after the accident in other areas of the Ukraine and in the neighboring Soviet republic of Byelorussia as far as 150 miles from Chernobyl.

The reactor that exploded has been entombed in concrete and steel. The other three reactors continue to operate normally, officials said.

Meeting with nuclear power officials, Gorbachev said that the Soviet leadership, in deciding the fate of both present and future nuclear power stations, will be “strictly guided by scientific data, which should contain the replies to all issues--technical, security, ecology, social and so on.”

But the Soviet Union still needs nuclear power, he added. “As far as the future goes, I think the answer should be well thought out,” he told workers outside the plant. “However, it is doubtful that we could manage without nuclear power.”

With his wife, Raisa, at his side as he toured the plant and the new village for its workers outside the contaminated zone, Gorbachev appeared to be making the point to television viewers that nuclear power was safe.

As political pressure grows to close more nuclear power stations--six are now scheduled for early closure--and with no substitutes readily available, Gorbachev is facing the difficult economic choice of slower growth if nuclear power cannot be made safe and public confidence restored in it.

The point was underscored when Chernobyl’s director, Mikhail Umanyets, told Gorbachev that one of the three units still operating at the plant had shut down automatically Wednesday when an electrical part failed to function properly. Under new operating regulations, Umanyets said, the unit will not go back into operation for two days in order to provide time for a complete check.

The Soviet government is developing a national program on ecology, Gorbachev said, and in the future will consider environmental impact before proceeding with any project.

“All projects must undergo strict scientific analysis to determine possible harm to the environment, and in the case of dispute, they must be submitted to a referendum,” Gorbachev said. Questioned by concerned residents of Kiev later Thursday about another nuclear power station under construction in the Crimea, Gorbachev said that further studies are being carried out and that the project will be turned into simply a training facility if there is any danger from the plant.

“One shouldn’t play around in these matters,” he said. “It’s serious. Don’t think we want to trick anyone on something like this.”