The World : More Chernobyl Evacuees

Soviet scientists say 106,000 people should be evacuated from their villages in Byelorussia due to contamination from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident, not 11,000 as the government recommends, the news agency Tass said. The cost of such a large resettlement would reach $15.6 billion, well beyond the financial capabilities of the republic just north of the power plant, which is in the Ukraine, the Byelorussian republic’s legislature was told. The estimate exceeds the $12.5-billion official figure for the cumulative cost of the Chernobyl cleanup. The explosion at the Chernobyl plant resulted in the death of 31 people and spread radioactive fallout over a wide area.