The US National Security Archive has declassified some of the documents related to the Chernobyl accident. From them it is clear that in the first days after the explosion, US intelligence doubted the veracity of official reports about the number of victims and was convinced that the personnel were evacuated immediately after the disaster, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
This was written in a secret message addressed to the US Secretary of State on May 2, 1986, follows from declassified documents in the US National Security Archive.
Morton Abramowitz, assistant for intelligence and research to the US Secretary of State, wrote a report to his supervisor, George Shultz, six days after the Chernobyl explosion.
“The entire intelligence community considers it nonsense that only two people died,” Abramowitz writes, referring to the official death toll released by the USSR.
However, in fact, two people died directly from the explosion of the fourth power unit. The United States could not believe such information, given the scale of destruction that they observed. According to American intelligence officers, given the scale of the incident, most personnel should have been evacuated immediately. In fact, the staff remained at their jobs after the explosion.
“...the composition of the rescue team would have changed as the severity of the incident became more apparent,” the report says.
Its author also noted that, in addition to new members of the rescue team, foremen from other units should have arrived at the scene to ensure the correct actions were taken to avoid a further disaster.