Å®ÉúСÊÓƵ

An account of how much it has cost to clean up after Chernobyl has been
released by the Soviet government’s ‘state commission for extraordinary
situations’. In the five years since the disaster, a total of 533 million
roubles (about £533 million) has been spent on items ranging from
new settlements for evacuees (425 million) to the entertainment of foreign
scientists (1.5 million).

Other outlays include 5.8 million roubles for the purchase of condemned
meat and almost 66 million roubles to ‘cover the costs’ incurred by the
nuclear energy ministry – including, apparently, additional safety measures
and training at other RBMK nuclear reactors.

The source of this money was not the Soviet budget, but charitable offerings
by Soviet citizens. A fund was opened immediately after the accident and
referred to in the media at that time as the ‘aid fund for Chernobyl victims’.
Now, however, its true name turns out to have been the ‘aid fund for the
liquidation of the effects of the Chernobyl disaster’.

Commenting on this change, Izvestiya wondered whether the Soviet public
would have given so generously had they known that much of the money would
go to cover the costs of the ministry responsible for the disaster.