Russians Try to Clean Up Radiation From Atomic Accident

Hundreds of disaster workers cleared snow and built dams in the Siberian wilderness Thursday in an effort to clean up the radiation from Russia’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

Commonwealth Television showed heavy damage at the nuclear weapons complex in the secret city of Tomsk-7, where an underground tank containing a poisonous mix of liquid nuclear waste exploded and burned Tuesday.

The Nuclear Energy Ministry said the explosion was caused by a buildup of pressure in the tank after the introduction of an acid cleanser.

The roof and several walls of the complex’s plutonium processing facility were destroyed in the blast, which spewed a radioactive cloud into the atmosphere.

The Russian Air Defense Command said the wind was blowing the radioactive cloud northeast from Tomsk-7 at a height of 1.2 miles and a speed of 22 m.p.h.

Although no evacuations were ordered and officials said the contaminated areas were unpopulated, Moscow called it the worst nuclear accident since the April, 1986, explosion and fire at the Chernobyl atomic power plant in Ukraine.

At the complex, workers in masks measured radiation in the area, while more than 500 firefighters and civil defense troops cleared away contaminated snow and dirt. They also built dams to prevent melting snow from spreading the contamination.

Vladimir Alexandrov, a shift supervisor at the plant, told the Itar-Tass news agency that one of the main reasons for the accident was poor work discipline. He said nuclear industry workers take little responsibility for their actions because the pay is low and the government pays little attention to poor conditions in the workplace.