Tory bunglers spark nukes fallout chaos
WHITEHALL was plunged into chaos after Britain was hit by radioactive fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Ukraine.
Environment Minister William Waldegrave gave out the phone number for his department’s drivers’ pool instead of the technical information centre.
And Environment Secretary Kenneth Baker said the risks were “insignificant” but the National Radiological Protection Board said “tens of people” would die, files from the National Archives in London reveal. John Wybrew, of the PM’s Policy Unit, wrote: “Whitehall lacked a firm lead. The ill co-ordinated nature of information and advice aroused rather than calmed public anxiety.”