Newsgroups: alt.astrology,alt.conspiracy,alt.war,sci.skeptic,sci.misc
Subject: CHERNOBYL WAS NO ACCIDENT...
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 96 22:11:49 EDT
Lines: 1096
Message-ID: <1777213825S86.JPA94001@UConnVM.UConn.Edu>


***THE CHERNOBYL EXPERIMENT***

By J. Adams
April 23rd, 1996


"...The third angel sounded and there fell a great star
from heaven, burning, as it were a lamp, and it fell on the
third part of the rivers and upon the fountains of water;

And the name of the star is Wormwood; and the third part of
the waters became Wormwood, and many men died of the waters
because they were made bitter."

(Revelations 8:10-11)


"The (Chernobyl) reactor was consciously driven into an
extremely dangerous situation, a situation known for its
dangers, and then on top of it all the complete security
mechanisms were put out of operation - allegedly for the
purpose of carrying through this experiment, even if the
report additionally professes that at least some of these
switchoffs were not at all necessary for this experiment.
Under such conditions, according also to the knowledge of that
time, one could not but know that one exposed the reactor to a
dangerous situation, proceeding from which unknown big
catastrophes became probable. Nothing, nothing at all has the
(Chernobyl) catastrophe to do with a coincidence of
unfortunate accidents. On the contrary, what was conducted
there must have lead directly to a ruinous accident, exactly
as driving a car with a speed of 140mph arround a corner very
probably leads to carrying the car out of the track."

(From: 10th ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHERNOBYL CATASTROPHE:
THE DECISIVE FACTS MUST AT LAST BE BROUGHT INTO THE PUBLIC)


The Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Ukraine on April 26, 1986 was
no accident. To the contrary, it was a sick, intentional experiment conducted by the "former" Communist government in Moscow to garner knowledge about the effects of radioactive contamination. For what
reason? To prepare to fight and survive a global nuclear war.

For those who have difficulty believing that Chernobyl was not an accident, I suggest you first consider the rather profound connections
the reported "accident" had to astrology and biblical prophecy.

On April 24th, 1986, just preceding the fire and explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the Soviet Ukraine, there was a total lunar
eclipse conjunct Pluto (the astrolog chart for this eclipse and an
excerpt from a related article I've written on "Kremlin Astrology" are
below). At first one might simply pass off as a coincidence the fact
that a lunar eclipse occurred in connection with the Chernobyl disaster, but what is key is that this eclipse was conjunct Pluto, a
rare astronomic event. What is even more significant about this is
that Pluto is the planet of explosive transformation and *nuclear technology* (consider the word "pluto"nium). Thus, Chernobyl happened
at the time of an astrological configuration that seemed to specifically indicate an explosive nuclear event. This means people
in a position of power, i.e., Kremlin leaders, may have ordered Chernobyl to occur at an astrologically appropriate time, i.e., just
after the lunar eclipse conjunct Pluto on April 24th, 1986.

If the evidence from astrology doesn't convince you that Chernobyl
was a planned rather than accidental event, consider the case that can
be made using biblical prophecy. In the Bible's "Book of Revelation",
which is supposed to depict the fiery conflict called "The Apocalypse", there is a "Seventh Seal" prophecy that many believe specifically predicts a future nuclear war (see the excerpt from my
article, "The Truth", below). In this prophecy, there is a passage
that mentions how the water will be poisoned by "Wormwood" (see above)
after a fiery catastrophe. This is most interesting since the Ukrainian word for "Wormwood" is "Chernobyl" (or "Chornobyl", as is explained in Mary Myco's article, "A Legacy of Wormwood"- see below).
What this means is that the same powers who ordered Chernobyl to occur
at a *time* of ideal *astrological* significance also saw to it that
the disaster occurred at a *place* of key *prophetic* significance.

Further evidence that Chernobyl was no accident comes from the suspicious circumstances of the disaster. As mentioned in the quote
above from "The 10th Anniversary of the Chernobyl Catatrophe: The
decisive facts must at last be brought into the public" (see below),
the series of reported "mistakes" that went into the nuclear reactor explosion at Chernobyl are literally *unbelievable*. This is because
what the world has been told is a lie. Soviet nuclear personnel intentionally took the steps necessary to generate a large-scale explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. As the author explains: "Nothing, nothing at all has the (Chernobyl) catastrophe to
do with a coincidence of unfortunate accidents. On the contrary, what
was conducted there must have lead directly to a ruinous accident."

Why would Kremlin authorities have staged the Chernobyl disaster?

Most likely to prepare for fighting a nuclear war. The events
that have been occurring according to astrology over the past ten
years, starting with the Chernobyl disaster, appear to be geared
toward the outcome depicted in the Seventh Seal prophecy of a fiery Apocalypse, i.e., a future nuclear war.

Chernobyl would have been a logical starting point if, in 1986,
Moscow started to implement a multi-year plan, say of ten years,
geared to fight and win a nuclear war against the West. In order to
prepare for surviving such a war, the Kremlin first wanted to test procedures and equipment that had been designed during the Cold War
years to counter radioactive contamination and poisoning following a
nuclear war. Also, Communist leaders realized the need to garner knowledge about the immediate and lasting effects of radioactive contamination on people, vegetation and livestock. Accordingly,
during the mid-1980's, when Kremlin authorities decided to implement a multi-year plan that would end in a nuclear war against the West, they
chose to first stage a major nuclear disaster in the Ukraine as a
useful preparatory experiment. From this diabolical experiment,
Russian scientists, assisted by the West, have gathered a wealth of knowledge about the short-term and longer-term effects of radiation on
people, plants and animals. Furthermore, the most effective equipment
and procedures have been developed for dealing with radioactive contamination and poisoning. This, of course, will be of tremendous
value if, indeed, Moscow is planning to fight and survive a global
nuclear war.

NOTE: For those of you who have a hard time accepting the idea that
Moscow is planning to wage a nuclear war against the West based upon
the evidence from Chernobyl, you might further consider the new underground command and control centre, known as Kosvinskiy Mountain,
Russia is building in the Ural mountains (see the related article
below or the recent New York Times article: "Despite Cold War's End,
Russia Keeps Building A Secret Complex"; 4/16/96, p.A1). As US Navy
Admiral William Studeman, former Acting Director of Central Intelligence, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last year: "Preparedness for nuclear conflict with the United States - not withstanding the end of the Cold War - remains a resource allocation
priority (of Russia)." Why would this be so unless the Kremlin is
planning to fight a nuclear war?

----------------------------------------------------------------------

***KREMLIN ASTROLOGY***

'Zodiac and the Cross of Nero;
How Astrology Guides Gorbachev's Russia'

By J. Adams
December 15th, 1995
Updated: April 23rd, 1996

Astrology was originally developed in ancient Persia, especially
by the Babylonians. King Zargon, for instance, had his scholars
compile a seventy-two volume astronomical treatise called the "Illumination Of Bel (their god)", in which the prophecy above was included. Astrology was important to Babylonian Kings like Zargon
because it was used for making important policy decisions like when
and where to wage wars.
The use of astrology by powerful dictators to make key decisions
and time important moves did not stop with Babylonian Kings, however.
It is now widely recognized that Adolph Hitler used astrology to guide
his important moves. Hitler shaped his political moves and foreign
policy decisions, like the timing of military campaigns in waging the
second world war, according to the stars. (See, for instance, Wilhwelm
T. Wulff's 'Zodiac & Swastika; How Astrology Guided Hitler's Germany', 1973).
Today the evil dictators and conquerors of the world are again
relying on astrology to guide their moves. Specifically, *Gorbachev's* Russia (I believe Gorbachev is still the leading figure
behind the scenes in Moscow today), Saddam Hussein's Iraq and the
other authoritarian powers of the East are likely using the stars to
guide a multi-year plan to militarily destroy the West and thereby
conquer the world. Thus, upon close examination, one finds that
almost all of the key events in Russia, Iraq, the former-Yugoslavia, Chechnya, so on and so forth, over the past decade have coincided with significant, relatively rare astrological configurations. (Note that
the leadership of the "opposing" factions in places like the former- Yugoslavia and Chechnya are former Communist elite. Thus, no matter
how much the opposite may appear to be the case, they are still likely receiving their orders from the Kremlin. That the Kremlin may control
all sides of "staged" conflicts in places like the Chechnya was
revealed by KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn in his book 'New Lies
For Old'.)

So that the use of astrology by the Kremlin and authoritarian powers
of the East is clear, please consider the following examples of where
key events coincided with significant, rare astrological configurations:


1. *April 24th, 1986: Total eclipse of the Moon conjunct Pluto.

The following evening the Chernobyl disaster, which was likely
no accident but rather a sick experiment to garner knowledge for
fighting a nuclear war, occurred in the Ukraine.
Notably this configuration involved the planet Pluto which is
supposed to represent explosive events and nuclear technology
("Pluto" is the root of the world "pluto"nium).


2. *July 22nd, 1990: Total solar eclipse.

Marked when Iraq began massing forces on the Kuwaiti border just
prior to the 1990 invasion.


3. *August 2nd thru 7th, 1990: Lunar eclipse squares Mars and Pluto.

In the Market Watch section of the July 16th, 1990 issue of
'Barron's', there is an excerpt from the newsletter of financial
astrologer Arch Crawford. It reads in part:

"...Aug. 6 (Lunar Eclipse squares Mars + Pluto). Expect some
major catastrophe on that last one, Aug. 2-7, as something
explodes in a big way... Astronomically similar to the Chernobyl
disaster..."

On August 2nd, Iraq invaded Kuwait precipitating the Persian Gulf
crisis.


4. *January 15th, 1991: Solar eclipse with rare 6-planet alignment in
Capricorn (note: in astrology the Sun and
Moon are considered planets).

January 15th, 1991 was the U.N. deadline for Iraq to pull-out of
Kuwait before the allied attack a day later- the beginning of the
Gulf War.

According to an ancient Babylonian prophecy, "when all the
planets meet in Capricorn the world will be destroyed by fire". In
January of 1991, there was a six-planet alignment in Capricorn, and
Venus, Jupiter and Pluto were heavily aspected in Capricorn and in
tension with each other. Thus, from the perspective of someone in
Iraq and the site of ancient Babylon, their "world was destroyed by
fire" exactly as forecast in this astrological prophecy (see Moira
Timms' 'Beyond Prophecies and Predictions', pp.206 & 209).


5. *June 26th, 1991: Lunar eclipse of lunar/solar eclipse pair. Also,
Pluto was squared (90-degree angle) by an
alignment of Venus, Mars and Jupiter.

Marked the beginning of the civil war in Yugoslavia.


6. *August 19th, 1991: Alignment of Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and
Jupiter in the zodiac sign of Leo.

A failed coup attempt by communist hardliners is staged in Moscow
which supposedly brings an end to the Communist Party and Soviet
Union.


7. *December 21st, 1991: Lunar eclipse on the winter solstice.

The Soviet flag comes down and the Russian flag is raised over the
Kremlin as the Soviet Union is officially disbanded.
A few days after this, on Christmas day (?!), Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev resigned.


8. *June 30th, 1992: Solar eclipse of lunar/solar eclipse pair. This
eclipse was aligned with Venus, Uranus and
Neptune and sextiled (60-degree angle) Mars and
Jupiter.

First U.N. forces arrive in Sarajevo as Western military
intervention in the former-Yugoslavia begins.


9. *October 4th, 1993: Pluto conjunct Moon squares (90-degree angle)
Saturn and trines (120-degree angle) Venus,
Uranus and Neptune.

Political chaos erupts in Moscow following Russian President Boris
Yeltsin's disbanding of the former-Soviet parliament.


10. *December 13th, 1993: Alignment of Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and
Mars in Sagitarrius.

Communists and Nationalists win the elections for a new Russian
parliament. Of particular surprise is the success of the "Liberal
Democratic Party (?!) led by Hitler-like nationalist Vladimir
Zhirinovsky.


11. *January 12th, 1994: Rare seven-planet alignment in Capricorn
(five planets and the sun and moon).
Tightest alignment of seven planets in
300 years.

U.S./Russia summit at which the superpowers sign an agreement to
no longer target each other with nuclear weapons.
Alignment also coincides with increased Serb shelling of Sarajevo
and a NATO summit meeting at which the Western allies agree to use
force in the former-Yugoslavia. Within a month the first NATO
ultimatum was issued for the withdrawal of Serb heavy weaponry from
around a Sarajevan "safe-zone".


12. *November 18th, 1994: Lunar eclipse of solar/lunar eclipse pair.
Eclipse is aligned with Pluto and Jupiter,
squares (90-degree angle) Mars and trines
(120-degree angle) Uranus and Neptune.

Croatian Serb warplanes bomb the U.N.-protected Bihac enclave in
violation of a NATO-enforced "no-fly zone". NATO responds by bombing
Serb positions. This is the first major use of military force against
the Serbs by NATO in the Balkan conflict and the first offensive
military action ever taken by NATO in the 45-year history of the
alliance.


13. *December 11th, 1994: Mars squares conjunction of Pluto & Jupiter.

Russia invades the breakaway republic of Chechnya.


14. *April 29th, 1995: Solar eclipse of lunar/solar eclipse pair.
Eclipse squares Neptune and Uranus.

Croatian Serb warplanes bomb the U.N.-protected Bihac enclave in
Bosnia in violation of a NATO enforced "no-fly zone" once again. The
Balkan war heats-up as a five-month cease-fire comes to an end.

(Notably, this was the first eclipse pair subsquent to the pair in
November of 1994 which marked the only other time Croatian Serb
warplanes bombed Bihac- both before and since.)


15. *June 14th, 1995: Mars squares alignment of Mercury, Venus and
and Jupiter.

Similar to configuration on December 11th, 1994 when Russia
invaded Chechnya. This time, a large group of Chechen rebels attack
a town in southern Russia and take several hundred patients hostage
at a hospital. The incident ends violently with hundreds of Russians
killed.


16. *July 12th, 1995: Alignment of Sun, Moon, Neptune and Uranus
trines (120-degree angle) Mars and sextiles
(60-degree angle) Saturn and Pluto.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin reportedly suffers a heart attack
while Bosnian Serb forces overrun the U.N.-protected enclave of
Srebrenica.


17. *October 24th, 1995: Mars and Pluto conjunct total solar eclipse.

Russian President Boris Yetsin suffers a second heart attack since
which he has still not recovered.


18. *November 22nd, 1995: 7-planet alignment of Sun, Moon, Mercury,
Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Pluto in
Sagitarrius.

Serbs do a total about-face and reach a peace agreement with
Bosnian and Croatian representatives at peace talks in Dayton, Ohio.
Some 60,000 NATO troops start heading into the former-Yugoslavia to
take over the peace-keeping mission from the United Nations.


19. *December 21st/22nd, 1995: Clustering of all planets in or
near Capricorn around the time of
the winter solstice.

Communists and nationalists win Russian parliamentary elections.


20. *January 15th, 1996: Moon squares alignment of Earth, Sun,
Mercury, Mars and Uranus.

Russian forces storm Chechen rebels holding hostages in southern
Russia.


21. *February 26th, 1996: Sun conjunct Mars T-squares Pluto and the
moon, which are in opposition (180
degrees apart).

Configuration is similar to the one that marked when Iraq invaded
Kuwait in August of 1990. Notably, February 26th is also the fifth
anniversary of Kuwait's liberation from Iraqi occupation and the end
of the Gulf War.

Wave of terrorist bombings against Israel occur starting February
25th as the Arabs begin to unravel the false peace that has been
established in the Middle East.


22. *April 3rd, 1996: Total lunar eclipse conjunct Mars and squared
by Jupiter.

North Korea pulls out of the Korean War Armistice and then carries
out a series of provocative armed incursions in the Demilitarized
Zone separating the two Koreas.


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Astrolog Chart for the April 1986 lunar eclipse that
coincided with the Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine:


+-------<11> 0Leo12----<10> 2Can11-----<9> 4Gem22-----------+
§ § § § §
§ § § § §
§ § § § §
§ § § § §
<12> 0Vir19----§-----------------------------§----- 4Tau40<8>
§ § § Sun 4Tau11 §
§ § Astrolog (4.10) chart § §
§ § Fri Apr 25 1986 12:00am § §
§ § +08:00 0:00W 0:00N § §
<1> 2Lib36-----§ Placidus Houses. §----- 2Ari36<7>
§ § Julian Day = 2446545.17 § §
§ § § §
§ § § §
§ § § §
<2> 4Sco40-----§-----------------------------§----- 0Pis19<6>
§ Plu 6Sco02r § § § §
§ Moo 6Sco03 § § § §
§ § § § §
§ § § § §
+----------- 4Sag22<3>----- 2Cap11<4>----- 0Aqu12<5>--------+


----------------------------------------------------------------------

"The Truth"

By J. Adams
October, 1994

In discussing my views concerning a future surprise world war
involving a nuclear holocaust triggered by conflict in the Middle
East, I have noticed that many people respond by saying I'm
predicting the "end of the world". I then point out that I did not
mention biblical prophecy. Yet, most people are quick to draw
parallels between Christian predictions of an Apocalypse and world
war three (of course, Jewish, Moslem, and most other world religions
have their own prophetic versions of the Apocalypse). This is
important because I personally do believe that the global conflict I
expect is, indeed, that which is predicted in the Bible. In fact,
while trying to determine what could cause the epic crash that now
appears to be imminent, I, along with friends, went through what can
only be logically classified as a private revelation that clued me
into just how "The Crash" would most likely occur.
Specifically, the revelation I went through had to do with the
seventh seal prophecy from the eighth chapter of the Book of
Revelation. This prophecy is the key to the revelation of "The
Truth" in the context of the Apocalypse (the word apocalypse
literally means "revelation"). After the seventh and final seal is
broken in the Book of Revelation, the Apocalypse is unleashed and
"The Truth" is revealed. Thus, the meaning behind the seventh seal
prophecy is of the utmost prophetic importance...

When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, (1) there was
silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw the
seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets
were given to them. And another angel came and stood at
the alter with a golden censer; and he was given much
incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon
the golden altar before the throne; and the smoke of the
incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand
of the angel before God. Then the angel took the censer
and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on
the earth; and (2) there were peals of thunder, loud
noises, flashes of lightening, and an earthquake.
Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets made
ready to blow them.
The first angel blew his trumpet, and (3) there
followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, which fell on
the earth; and a third of the earth was burnt up, and a
third of the trees were burnt up, and all green grass was
burnt up.
The second angel blew his trumpet, and (4) something
like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into
the sea; and a third of the sea became blood, a third of
the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the
ships destroyed.
The third angel blew his trumpet, and (5) a great star
fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a
third of the rivers and on the fountains of water. The
name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters
became wormwood, and many men died of the water, because
it was made bitter.
The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and (6) a third of
the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third
of the stars, so that a third of their light was
darkened; a third of the day was kept from shining, and
likewise a third of the night.
Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud
voice, as it flew in midheaven, "Woe, woe, woe to those
who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other
trumpets which the three angels are about to blow!"

I have long believed that this prophecy is a depiction of a
future nuclear war. Even though it was written some 2000 years ago,
it accurately describes each major phase of a global nuclear
holocaust:

1. The half hour of "silence in heaven" during which ICBM's would
traverse their orbits before striking targets after being
launched.

2. The thunderous reports, bright flashes, and earthquake associated
with nuclear detonations.

3. The nuclear blasts of "hail and fire, mixed with blood" followed
by raging fires that would consume much of the earth.

4. The nuclear explosions, "like a great mountain, burning with
fire", all over the world's seas as ports, ships, and submarines
are attacked.

5. The lethal contamination of water supplies by radioactive fallout
("Wormwood") for weeks after a nuclear war.

6. The blanketing of the sky by vast dust clouds after a nuclear war
such that sunlight, moonlight, and starlight is obscured thereby
causing a "nuclear winter".

Over the years my conviction has grown that this prophecy
predicts a future nuclear war. First off, the 1986 Chernobyl
disaster in the Ukraine helped reveal the truth behind the prophecy.
This is because, as I later found out, the Ukrainian word for the
bitter herb "wormwood", which poisons water in the seventh seal
prophecy, is "Chernobyl" (easily referenced- see, for instance:
'Chernobyl' (1987), by Andrey Illesh).
If this were not enough, in February of 1991, in the middle of
the Gulf War, a couple of friends and I had some rather remarkable
experiences that I believe confirmed the meaning of the prophecy as
well as indicated its imminent fulfillment. First off, on February
6th, I saw a special report of a chemical SCUD attack on Israel that
did not exist (believe me, I checked it out fully; the report was
never aired). Then, about a week later, I was with a friend of mine
who had just become interested in Nostradamus and prophecies that
might be connected with the Gulf War. After showing him some books I
had on Nostradamus, I began reading him the seventh seal prophecy
above. Just as I began reading it, we heard an air- raid siren
followed by the bellowed percussion of a nuclear explosion. The
authenticity of the experience led me to rush with my friend to a
deep basement in a nearby building. From there I contacted the local
fire department to see if any sirens had been sounded; however, none
had. After returning to our original location, my friend and I began
checking with others to see if anyone else had heard anything. No
one else had. However, another friend of mine, who is very
trustworthy, said that he had heard no air-raid siren that evening-
he had heard one that afternoon. When I asked him whether or not it
could have been a fire alarm, he responded: "No, it was distinctly an
air-raid siren off in the distance".
Needless to say, these extraordinary experiences led me to
conclude that the conflict in the Persian Gulf might somehow be
linked to a future global nuclear war- an event that would fit the
ultimate crash I have been anticipating. Thus, I began to critically
reexamine the events that had been taking place in the Gulf, and I
quickly realized there was something seriously amiss. In fact, all
the inconsistencies and contradictions pointed to one logical
explanation: the Soviets and Iraq were engaging in large-scale
strategic deception (see my paper, "The Persian Gulf Deception").
The reason they would be doing this was clarified after examining the
rather frightening conclusion of our national security analysts
during the late-1970s and early-1980's: the Soviets were preparing to
fight and win a nuclear war (see: Richard Pipes' "Why the Soviet
Union Thinks it could Fight and Win a Nuclear War" in 'Commentary'
(July, 1977), Dr. William Van Cleave's "Soviet Strategic Nuclear
Forces and Goals: Deception and Surprise" in 'Mesmerized By The Bear'
(1987), and/or 'Soviet Strategy for Nuclear War' (1979), authored by
Joseph Douglas). Of course, with remarkable fear-induced
irrationality, Western society has completely ignored the possibility
that Gorbachev's "New Thinking" may have been the introduction of a
total lie rooted in the unthinkable "Russian Idea" (see Alexander
Yanov's 'The Russian Challenge and the Year 2000' (1987)). There is,
however, sufficient reason to believe this is the case.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Newsday
April 7, 1996

"A Legacy of Wormwood"
By Mary Myco

"...The third angel sounded and there fell a great star
from heaven, burning, as it were a lamp, and it fell on the
third part of the rivers and upon the fountains of water;

And the name of the star is Wormwood; and the third part of
the waters became Wormwood, and many men died of the waters
because they were made bitter."

Revelations 8:10-11

TO CONNECT the third biblical sign of the Apocalypse to the 1986
nuclear disaster at the then-Soviet power station 80 miles north of
Kiev, you first have to pronounce that station's name as the Ukrainian: "ChOrnobyl," rather than the generally accepted: "ChErnobyl. "

A Russified version of a Ukrainian word, " Chernobyl" doesn't even
appear in either language's dictionary. Nor will you see it on the
road signs in the contaminated 36-mile-wide Zone of Alienation
circling the gutted reactor. Since Ukraine inherited the Rhode Island-
sized region from the late Soviet Union in 1991, all the "e's" have
been taped over with "o's" to spell "Chornobyl."

Chornobyl is the Ukrainian word for wormwood, a medicinal herb
endowed with magical powers in folklore. And it truly became a force
to conjure after the Chornobyl station's fourth reactor exploded on
April 26, 1986. The cloud of radioactive wormwood subsequently spewed
around the globe seemed like a bitter foretaste of the nuclear holocaust that would end the world.

Luckily, the world is still here. But viewed through the crystal
ball of hindsight, the disaster did herald doom for the Soviet Union.
Like the badly designed Chornobyl reactor, the Communist empire collapsed under pressure, and the 20-story "sarcophagus" encasing the radioactive reactor core in concrete and steel seems like a fitting tombstone for both.

Eventually, someone will have to devise a semiotic danger sign to
ward off the unsuspecting in future millennia, when our languages will
have been forgotten but the mess inside the sarcophagus will still be radioactive.

For now, the real epitaph is two miles away in the ghost town of
Pripyat, where a mural on one of the dozens of modern high-rises
vacantly overlooking poplar-lined streets proclaims:

"The Party of Lenin,
The power of the people,
Leads us to the triumph of Communism!"

Instead of triumph, the Party of Lenin led the 45,000 people of
Pripyat, plus 90,000 more from villages and towns in the contaminated
Polissia region, to abandon their homes permanently.

Now, it will take more than two centuries for the cesium and strontium contaminating most parts of the Zone of Alienation to decay
away. The deadly plutonium in the six-mile ring closest to the reactor
will, as a practical matter, last forever.

Small wonder that no more than 10,000 people work (but rarely live)
in the Zone these days. Almost all are in two different places named Chornobyl: the nuclear station, where two controversial reactors Kiev
promises to close are still running, and the town 12 miles away, where
the administration of the Zone of Alienation performs its dystopian
task of running the no-man's land.

The work has incentives. Wages are double to triple the Ukrainian
average, while radiation exposure rules limit work to just two weeks a
month.

But I still had my doubts. "Don't you worry about the radiation?" I
asked my tour guide, Oleksandr Shevchenko.

"Most of the time there's no danger," he assured me. Like all Zone
men, he was dressed in camouflage. The uniforms are a nod to male
workers' sartorial simplicity rather than safety. Women wear whatever
they want.

But everyone wears one of the clip-on dosimeters that Shevchenko
showed me. "I don't want to know what it reads," he said, explaining:
"If I reach my yearly exposure, they wouldn't let me work here. So if
I'm here, I must be OK."

Actually, on the day I visited, the background radiation in most
parts of the Zone was normal. After 10 years, 95 percent of the radioactivity has sunk about an inch into the soil, securing it from
being blown about in surface dust. Snow, too, is a shield. My winter
visit was no accident.

I expected a desolate wasteland. In fact, the Zone is very much
alive. The removal of 135,000 humans has created a wildlife refuge
with a population explosion of perfectly healthy-looking boar, moose,
deer, wolves and smaller animals. I even spotted a rare golden eagle
soaring above the treetops in the six-mile innermost ring, drawn by
the abundance of prey - and the lack of people.

Because cesium and strontium have long since passed from the soil
into the food chain, both the prey and the predators are radioactive.
And if a cesium-packed roebuck bounds out of the Zone into a neighboring forest and dies, its body will leave a patch of contamination where there had been none before.

That's just one way that radionuclides, or radioactive atoms, move
around in the wild. Scientists call the process "migration" and try to
prevent it by immobilizing radionuclides in one place where a metaphorical eye can be kept on them.

Soil isn't one of those places. Aside from insinuating themselves
into the food chain, radionuclides can eventually migrate down to the
water table. But early efforts to decontaminate soil with radiation- absorbing plants created a new problem: disposing of the harvest.
Smoke from burning would be radioactive. And burial isn't an option
either because there is already too much contaminated garbage in the
Zone's 800 leaky "graveyards."

That's why so much "hot" debris, such as the huge concrete blocks
that spell out the slogan, "The Forest is the Source of Health," still
stand in the same place as 10 years ago.

Like nearly everything in this symbol-laden landscape, that sign
from a pre-Chornobyl forestry farm has acquired new meaning. Trees, it
turns out, are the best and cheapest way of immobilizing radionuclides, which concentrate in bark where they can safely decay
away in the centuries of a tree's lifetime. The danger then becomes
fires, such as the one that raged through the Zone in 1991.

Once upon a time, according to folklore, the biggest danger in Ukrainian forests was from woodland nymphs called mavky. Mavky lured
their victims with beautiful songs, then tickled them to death. For
reasons folklore doesn't explain, the only way to ward off mavky was
with wormwood, an herb they feared immensely.

Now, 10 years after Chornobyl, few people venture into the wormwood
forests of the Zone. Mushroom and berry picking are forbidden; so is
hunting. But for the rangers who work in the woods, clearing out
deadwood and fighting the radioactive fires that deadwood can start,
there's at least one consolation for the risk: They needn't worry
about mavky anymore.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
The following was taken off of the network news: ----------------------------------------------------------------------

10th ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHERNOBYL CATASTROPHE:
THE DECISIVE FACTS MUST AT LAST BE BROUGHT INTO THE PUBLIC

On April the 26th the catastrophe of Chernobyl will be ten years
ago. Again numerous commemorative articles will be published, and
there will be demonstrations. But the very backgrounds of that catastrophe, which lie open, at least for a considerable part, will
not be dealt with there. We consider it necessary to carry exactly
these facts into the public, which also inevitably shall shed an essential light upon the whole green campaign and the movement against
nuclear power stations, even alone by their being laid open. This incident, this catastrophe was actually instantly used by the whole
green movement and by all parliamentary parties to demand "instant stoppage" of nuclear energy in the Federal Republic of Germany. This relationship between a catastrophe of a nuclear power station abroad,
in the present case in the Soviet Union, and an especially heavy-
weighted campaign in this country needs indeed to be examined. For
this purpose the publication of the backgrounds, among other things,
is very helpful. We demand unambiguously an end to the virtual withholding of these facts in the public.

Still during the same year 1986 are published a Soviet report about
the technical details as well as publications by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and by the German Association for
Reactor Safety (GRS). Except for a short-time mentioning of the main
results by some renown newspapers, the reports are not dealt with in
the public, especially not by the media which are decisive for the
broad public. Therefore here we go into the details of the Russian
report and its peculiarities. Already then, during summer 1986 it
became clear that the security systems of the reactor were put out of operation within the framework of experiments, and that a heavy manipulation of the reactor had been undertaken. This in turn led to
numerous questions.

-The report of the Soviet State Committee-

The report itself contains a sequence of extremely rude interventions
into the reactor, of systematic setting aside all provided security installations, so that one must ask oneself what was in the mind of
the operators when they manipulated the reactor in this way and
executed the most daredevil "experiments" with it. The report on the
one hand depicts numerous details of the technical process in this
way, in order to sum up the event by the completely unsuitable and appeasing terms of "operating mistake" or "breaking of operating instructions" and in this way to evade all decisive questions. The
IAEA, by the way, is an instrument of the so-called Atomic Weapons Nonproliferation Treaty and as such covers up, as it were the most
natural thing in the world, the nuclear hegemony of the then two "Superpowers", which means that the supreme nuclear powers are
entitled to control all the remaining countries, but not the other way
round.

Many questions, concerning the responsibility for the incident, the
origin of explosions at the reactor remain unanswered, or in the best
case are being fobbed off with vague hypotheses.

The reactor was consciously driven into an extremely dangerous situation, a situation known for its dangers, and then on top of it
all the complete security mechanisms were put out of operation - allegedly for the purpose of carrying through this experiment, even if
the report additionally professes that at least some of these switchoffs were not at all necessary for this experiment. Under such conditions, according also to the knowledge of that time, one could
not but know that one exposed the reactor to a dangerous situation, proceeding from which unknown big catastrophes became probable.
Nothing, nothing at all has the catastrophe to do with a coincidence
of unfortunate accidents. On the contrary. What was conducted there,
must have lead directly to a ruinous accident, exactly as driving a
car with a speed of 140mph arround a corner very probably leads to
carrying the car out of the track.

For some pages the report reads in the following manner: here they undertook this forbidden manoeuvre and violated that rules, and in
order to make the experiment possible at all, this and afterwards that
security device was put out of operation.

The immediate cause of the desaster was an alleged experiment to use,
for internal requirements, the current of the turbogenerator coming to
a stop. First of all in general it is astonishing that such a reactor
fully equipped with radioactive fuel rods is said to be used by its
crew as a simple "test object", normally for experiments of that kind
test devices are being used for the first time. The report puts the
entire blame on the personnel, on its thoughtlessness. On the other
hand it can be seen from the report itself that the experiment was
directed by a person who was not a specialist for reactors, but only a "ordinary electrical engineer". He apparently gave his directives to
the present operating crew. It reads for example:

"The operators attempted manually to sustain the main parameters of
the system - steam pressure and the water level in the drum separators
- but they did not entirely succeed in doing so. At this stage they
saw the steam pressure in the drum separators sag by 0.5-0.6 MPa and
the water level drop below the emergency mark. In order to avoid
shutting down the reactor in such conditions, the staff blocked the emergency protection signals relating to these parameters. At the same
time, the reactivity continued to drop slowly. At 1:22:30, the
operator saw from a printout of the fast reactivity evaluation program
that the available excess reactivity had reached a level requiring immediate shutdown of the reactor. Nevertheless, the staff were not
stopped by this and began with the experiments." (p. 16/17) 1|


These sentences one must read twice indeed, as they show the whole purposefulness of the proceeding. Who ordered such a reckless way of proceeding at the reactor? That engineer who was not an expert for
reactors at all? About this responsibility the report is silent.

After that the security device for the case of both turbogenerators
being switched off is put out of function.

The report says: "This meant a further departure from the experimental programme, which did not call for blocking the reactor's emergency protection with the switching off of two turbogenerators." (p. 17) 2|

Shortly after 1 h 23 min suddenly the reactivity of the fuel in the
reactor, which had been highly manipulated and forcibly brought down, increases massively. The operator tries an emergency shut-down, which
however - says the report - fails.

Then it is said: "According to observers outside unit 4, at about 1:24
there occurred two explosions one after the other; burning lumps of
material and sparks shot into the air above the reactor, some of which
fell onto the roof of the machine room and started a fire." (p. 17)
Later an attempt to explain these explosions was undertaken using a mathematical computing model, but nowhere they are being explained in
a really conclusive manner. Mathematical models have only limited meaningfulness and normally serve to put somebody on the right track
leading to the determination of the results. One question, which poses
itself in this framework, and which also could show something to the investigation about the backgrounds of the catastrophe, consists in
the following: Was a mathematical model about the consequences put up
prior to proceeding to the apparent planful manipulation of the
reactor? That would seem natural. If such methods of a mathematical simulation are at hand, why not make use of them in advance, in the
case of such dangerous processes? In case the simulation existed
however: what did it tell?

176 persons were present in the whole plant, of whom a part was in the concerned reactor unit 4. According to the Soviet statements of that
time the most part of this personnel must have survived this incident.
But at the same time this explosion from the inside is said to have overturned a slab of 1.000 tons. How can men survive such an explosion
in the inside?

About the causes of the incident it is said in the Soviet report: "As
shown by the analysis presented above, the accident in the fourth unit
of the Chernobyl' nuclear power plant belongs to the category of accidents associated with the introduction of excess reactivity. The
design of the reactor facility provided for protection against this
type of accident with allowance for the physical characteristics of
the reactor, including a positive steam void coefficient of reactivity." (p. 22)
(This coefficient describes a characteristic feature of the RMBK-
reactor which means that at an increase of the steam content of the
cooling water the power may rise under certain conditions.)

And exactly these protective devices were put out of function.

"The accident assumed catastrophic proportions because the reactor was
taken by the staff into a non-regulation state in which the positive
void coefficient of reactivity was able substantially to enhance the
power excursion." (p. 23) *5|

By the explosions and the entire proceeding described here great
masses of radioactivity came into the air and were scattered over the
European continent by the winds. They led to a serious increase of radioactivity in some nearer regions. The immediate surrounding area
had to be evacuated. During the following days the sealing of the
reactor building and the extinction of the fire are undertaken with
great energy, and with success. The days after the catastrophe are at
the same time days of the biggest nuclear protection manoeuvres, of
fight against nuclear fire, of confinement and, as far as possible, of decontamination of the environment. The reactor units 1 and 2 in the immediate vicinity of the reactor 4 continue to work for 24 hours even
on the day of the catastrophe!!!

This description, too, shows, by the way, that the propaganda, as it
went here, had the intention, even though the catastrophe was serious,
to make a really mystical matter out of it, aiming at engendering
general fear of the big technology. This has nothing to do with a realistic assessment, this is propagandistic intention on principle
which benefits all those who pushed for desindustrialization and who
are trying to disseminate uncertainty about the material fundaments of
society.

The report by those politically responsible of the Soviet Union of
that time does not keep completely quiet either about its intentions regarding the political conclusions:

"The fact that the contemporary world is full of potentially dangerous industrial production processes significantly aggravating the consequences of military actions gives a new perspective to the senselessness and inadmissibility of war in today's world." (p. 3) *6|

At that time the possibility of an attack of a potential military
enemy against atomic energy plants, and that therefore they should not
been constructed, was frequently being discussed. The advocates of
this opinion were the same who preached the so-called policy of
detente. Very interesting: there happens an alleged "incident", with a
Soviet reactor, and the same responsible people warn other countries
against their atomic energy plants and industrial plants, that the
world was full of them, that is to say more plants apparently should
not be erected. So these are de facto threats of the Soviet leadership
of that time connected to the occurrence of a catastrophe under very
dubious circumstances in their country. * And after that Gorbatchov,
under whom the USA gained a decisive influence in the Soviet Union
itself, declares that on the occasion of Chernobyl one should cooperate more closely with the IAEA, which possibly should control internationally more strictly the entire atomic industry, also the
Russian one.


THE CONCLUSIONS OF THE GRS
(ASSOCIATION FOR THE SECURITY OF REACTORS)

There also exists, subsequent to this report, an extensive description of the GRS "New insights into the incident in the nuclear
power station Chernobyl .. state: Oct. 1986". Here too the astounding circumstances cannot be concealed, but also here it is attempted to rubricate the whole thing simply under "human error", under "violation
of regulations".

Psychology is bothered: The crew had had big ambitions and had been
willing to carry through this experiment with greater speed. Other questions, more essential ones, as for the political context, into
which the Soviet Union itself wanted to put this aubject, questions
for the responsibility of this "experiment program" at the reactor,
which was carried through without any responsibility, apparently are
not being asked.

Summing up this report says:

"This misconduct consists in conscious and blatant injuries against
binding regulations. The frequency and the importance of the mistaken
actions indicate that the practice of running the plant was throughout, not only in an isolated manner at April 26th 1986, characterized by an attitude of lack of awareness of security matters." (p. 34) *7|

It is ridiculous to say that irresponsible actions of that kind -such
a characterization is not employed by the IAEA or by the GRS! - are to
be put down only on a lack of awareness of security matters. Even a nonprofessional would know, that such actions at a reactor are
mortally dangerous, not only for the crew. A serious striving for
finding out the background of this behaviour cannot be recognized on
the part of the IAEA or the GRS. The question who ordered this program
of experiments or by which superior authorities these experiments were approved, is not asked. Neither any evidence is published about what statements the responsible people of that "shift" made during the investigations, or if all of them lost their lives at the incident - according to the Soviet description this may hardly be the case.

Erasing all these points it is said only: "The behaviour of the personnel in connection with substantial weaknesses of the design of
the plant was the cause for the incident at the nuclear power station
of Chernobyl." (p. 33) *8|

Weaknesses of the personnel and weaknesses of the construction -this
is the whole litany, an utterly cheap litany which by no means does
justice to the quality of the things. Equally naive are the proposals
by which events of that kind shall be prevented in the future:

"Training of the personnel stressing especially the understanding of
the processes in the reactor and during the operation of the reactor, including training at simulators which represent also the processes
during heavy incidents in a realistic manner." (p. 32) *9|

Can one assume seriously that the crew which had been working successfully for years at the reactor (says the report itself) does
not know the dangerous potential residing in it?? The regulations for
the operation of the reactor do indeed show the danger of the reactor
at low power level .

Then it reads in the report of the GRS: "As a conscious bringing about
of the incident can be excluded, the behaviour of the personnel
becomes understandable only if one assumes that it did not know sufficiently the behaviour of the reactor at low power levels." (p.34)
*10|

This formulation shows that even the editors of this report had to
deal with the question of a conscious bringing about of an heavy
ruinous incident, but why this possibility is excluded in face of the
whole chain of actions which made it possible, stays without any
detailed argumentation.


References:

*1| *2| *3| * 4| *5| *6|
USSR State Committee on the Utilization of Atomic Energy The Accident
at the Chernobyl' Nuclear Power Plant and its Consequences. Information Compiled for the IAEA's Experts' Meeting, 25-29- August
1986, Vienna Part I. General Material Draft August 1986

*7| *8| *9| *10|
Gesellschaft fuer Reaktorsicherheit (GRS) mbH, Koeln/Garching Neuere Erkenntnisse zum Unfall im Kernkraftwerk Tschernobyl. Stand: Oktober
1986 (2nd ed. Febr. 1987) (The quotations from this publication were translated by us).

*Note: The German translation of this passage is even more outspoken.
It uses the expression: "satiation" - (of the contemporary world with potentially dangerous industrial production processes etc.) It is not
clear if this expression stems from the Soviet original and subsequently was weakened by the English translation, or if the German translator introduced it into the context.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
NEUE EINHEIT
Zeitschrift fuer Politik, Oekonomie und Kultur
- Extrablatt Nr.25 - ----------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet,alt.current-events.russia
Subject: Re: Russia prepares for nuclear war
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 96 23:01:32 EST


Jane's Defence Weekly
December 16, 1995
(Vol. 24; No. 25; Pg. 5)

Russia 'is still preparing for war with USA'

By Barbara Starr

Preparation for nuclear war with the USA appears to remain a high
Russian priority, according to statements by US intelligence community officials recently made public.

One sign is a new Russian underground command and control centre,
known as Kosvinskiy Mountain, that has been built in the Urals. It is
"one of the main new elements" of the Russian underground nuclear
command and control architecture that has emerged since the Soviet
Union dissolved, US Navy Adm William Studeman, then Acting Director of
Central Intelligence, told the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier
this year.

The statements were in reply to SASC questions following public
hearings in January. The answers and parts of the classified closed
hearing that followed the public session, were released recently.

"While some of this construction appears to be the continuation of programmes started long before the break-up, it still appears to be high-priority to correct perceived vulnerabilities in their nuclear
command and control system," said Adm Studeman.

"Preparedness for nuclear conflict with the United States - not withstanding the end of the Cold War - remains a resource allocation priority."

Lt Gen James Clapper, who was Director of the Defense Intelligence
Agency during the hearing, told the committee the bunker facility
"will be a new part of Russia's multi-billion dollar effort" to modernize its nuclear infrastructure.

The Russians appear to be seeking to improve their ability to absorb a
nuclear strike, reducing their incentives for early nuclear use.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
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