Children weren’t allowed to go out due to accident on a nuclear plant?

As the Charter’97 press center has learnt from parents, whose children attend the Minsk kindergarten No 111, their kids were not allowed to go out yesterday. Teachers told the parents it was an order of the director, who had received a call from a higher-level agency.

The exact reason of this decision is unknown, but staff of the kindergarten says it may be connected with an accident on a nuclear plant in one of the neighbouring countries.

Vialetta Kakoryna, headmaster of the Minsk kindergarten no 111, said to the Charter’97 press center, a telephone message from the Education Department of the Savetski district had been received asking not let children go out and not open windows.

“We received a telephone message from the Education Department of the Savetski district saying a storm was expected. We were asked not to let children go out and not to open windows. Nothing was said about an accident on a nuclear plant. It is known, that similar instructions were given to other kindergartens,” the headmaster said.

In the meantime, officers of the Ministry of Emergency of Belarus as well as administration of the Smolensk (Russian) and Ignalina (Lithuania) nuclear power plants denied in a telephone conversation with Interfax rumours about radioactivity discharge or radiation background growth, spread by a number of e-media.

The office of the director of the Smolensk nuclear power plant (situated in Desnogorsk town) said to Interfax: “There was no radioactivity discharge on the plant. You are the first to say it. We work in normal mode, radiation background on the plant is 0.19 µSv/h at the normal rate of 2.5 µSv/h.

The director of the Ignalina nuclear power plant said there had been no discharge and radiation background on the object is normal.

“We received 9 telephone calls today,” Vital Navitski, spokesman of the Ministry of Emergency, said to Interfax. “We were asked what had happened on Ignalina nuclear plant 7 times, one time – what had happened in Sosny (United Institute of Energy and Nuclear Researches at the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus – IF), and one time – about Smolensk nuclear plant,” the spokesman said.

“Radiological situation in Belarus is stable, radiation background in Minsk is within the normal range and amounts to 0.1 µSv/h (maximum rate is 0.2 µSv/h),” an officer on-duty in the Republican Center of Radiological Control said to Interfax.