Chief Chernobyl Liquidator Refutes US Intelligence Data On Death Toll In Reactor Blast

Maj. Gen. Nikolai Tarakanov, who headed the team of liquidators tasked with eliminating the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, refuted on Monday newly released US intelligence data about the number of people who died when the reactor at the now infamous power plant exploded

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th August, 2019) Maj. Gen. Nikolai Tarakanov, who headed the team of liquidators tasked with eliminating the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, refuted on Monday newly released US intelligence data about the number of people who died when the reactor at the now infamous power plant exploded.

On Sunday, the United States issued its first confidential intelligence report on the Chernobyl disaster, which puts into question official Soviet claims that only two people died when the reactor exploded. The report says that the death toll was much higher due to the sheer scale of the destruction caused by the explosion as well as the subsequent release of radioactive substances. According to this US data, dozens of people who were in close proximity to the faulty reactor could have died immediately or been exposed to lethal doses of radiation.

"I would say directly: this is wild fiction. It is not true that there were many victims after the explosion," Tarakanov told Sputnik.

He added that the speculations had emerged soon after the release of the HBO miniseries "Chernobyl," which has led to a rise in public interest in the incident.

The worst nuclear accident in history happened at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986, near the town of Pripyat, Soviet Ukraine. As a result, large parts of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia were contaminated with radioactive substances, with the effects of the blast even spreading further west toward the European continent. The blast itself left two plant workers dead, according to official data, but the total number of people who died after coming into contact with radioactive substances is still under debate.