Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant CIA Files - Paperless Archives

215 pages of CIA files dating from 1971 to 1991.The files cover the
Soviet Union's atomic energy program; The effect of the Chernobyl
accident on the Soviet nuclear power program; and the social and
political ramifications of the accident in the Soviet Union.
A 1981 report covers the less publicized Soviet nuclear "accident" near
Kyshtym in 1957-58.
Media reporting of a nuclear accident near Kyshtym first appeared in
1958. It was not until 1976, when the writings of Soviet dissent Dr.
Zhores Medvedev began to appear, that wider attention was given to this
subject. Medvedev, an exiled Soviet geneticist, claimed in several
articles and books that a "disaster" occurred near Kyshtym in 1957/58. He
alleged that thousands of casualties and widespread, long-term
radioactive contamination occurred as the result of an explosion
involving nuclear waste stored in underground shelters.
The general consensus today is that a combination of events, rather than
a single isolated incident at Kyshtym nuclear energy complex caused the
radioactive contamination in the area. A study of the claims by Medvedev
can be found in the Department of Energy section, in the 1982 report "An
Analysis of the Alleged Kyshtym Disaster"
U.S. GOVERNMENT FOREIGN PRESS MONITORING
900 pages of foreign media monitoring reports from 1986 to 1992, produced
by the U.S. government's National Technical Information Service's U.S.
Joint Publication Research Service. They contain information primarily
from Russian and Eastern Block news agency transmissions and broadcasts,
newspapers, periodicals, television, radio and books. Materials from non-
English language sources are translated into English.
The reporting includes firsthand accounts of experiences during all
points of the Chernobyl disaster. Topics covering the accident and its
aftermath including domestic and international politics, sociological
affairs, nuclear plant fire, evacuations, sealing the reactor,
cleanup mobilization, health implications, and people returning to
region.
DEPARTMENT OF ENGERY REPORTS
1,244 pages of reports dating from 1982 to 2009 produced or commissioned
by the Department of Energy.
The agencies and institutions contributing to these reports include Los
Alamos National Laboratory, United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Argonne
National Laboratory, and the Pacific Northwest Laboratory.
Highlights include: