. . . As More Villages Face Evacuation Near Chernobyl
Health authorities have urged evacuation of five more villages in the Ukraine because of persistent levels of radiation from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Tass reported.
The villages were not named but Tass said that three of them were in the Narodichsky district, about 30 miles from Chernobyl, where a Soviet newspaper last month reported the birth of deformed farm animals.
The other two villages were in the neighboring Polesski district. Both areas are west of Chernobyl and outside the 18-mile zone, from which more than 100,000 people were evacuated immediately after the disaster.
The April, 1986, explosion and fire at Chernobyl killed 31 people and spread radiation across Europe.
Last month, authorities ordered the evacuation of 20 villages in Byelorussia, north of the Ukraine, after discovering radiation levels were still high there.
Also in February, the newspaper Moscow News said the number of deformed pigs and cows born on one farm in the Narodichsky district, had soared since the Chernobyl accident.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
