The World - News from April 21, 1987

Slight increases in radiation levels have been detected in rivers near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant nearly a year after the worst nuclear accident in history, the Soviet Union’s official Tass new agency reported. Valentin G. Sokolovsky, deputy chairman of the State Committee for Hydrometeorology and Monitoring the Natural Environment, said in an interview that runoff of radioactive debris during spring floods in the Ukraine led to the increase. He said the level is not high enough to endanger health. Radiation levels remain above normal around the plant, 600 miles southwest of Moscow, and decontamination is continuing, he added.