
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 28, 1990                   TAG: 9004280032
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

SOVIETS SEEK WORLD'S HELP FOR CHERNOBYL

A Soviet parliamentary delegation, decrying the secrecy their government imposed after the Chernobyl nuclear accident four years ago, made an urgent appeal to the United States and the world Friday for help in dealing with towering medical and human problems.

Severe shortages exist in medical equipment, radiological and other scientific laboratories, radiation detectors, housing for scores of thousands of relocated people and even baby food, the five-man delegation said at a news conference at the Soviet Embassy.

The accident, on April 26, 1986, at the Chernobyl reactor 80 miles north of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, began with a fire in one of four reactors followed by a core meltdown and an explosion, which sent huge quantities of radiation billowing into the atmosphere.

The delegation reported that 12.5 million acres of farmland and 1.5 million acres of forests in the Ukraine alone were affected by contamination and the "obsolete" Chernobyl reactors will be shut down permanently this year or next.

by CNB