Chernobyl exposed Whitehall planning shambles

WHITEHALL WAS plunged into chaos by the Chernobyl disaster as the radioactive fall-out started arriving in the UK during a bank holiday weekend, according to newly released official files.

The catastrophic explosion at the Soviet nuclear reactor on April 26 1986 was the world’s worst nuclear accident – releasing radioactive plumes high into the atmosphere. However it was another week before the first signs of increased radioactivity levels were detected in the UK – just as officials were packing up for the long May bank holiday weekend.

With Margaret Thatcher out of the country on an official visit to Japan, government files released by the National Archives at Kew suggest the immediate response was little short of shambolic.

Phone lines were overwhelmed, advice issued to calm public fears only inflamed them, while officials were dismayed to discover they did not have a contingency plan for dealing with an incident involving an overseas nuclear facility.

In one moment of pure “farce”, environment minister William Waldegrave mistakenly gave out the telephone number for the Department of the Environment (DoE) drivers’ pool instead of Whitehall’s technical information centre during an interview.

Mrs Thatcher said that the government had given the “appearance of disarray”. John Wybrew, of the policy unit, wrote: “Not until after the weekend did DoE and environment ministers firmly take charge.”