Thursday, March 21, 1996

   LONDON (Reuter) - More than 30 million people could be contaminated
by radioactivity sweeping down rivers from the Chernobyl nuclear power
station, scientists reported Thursday.
   They said floods were carrying downstream radioactive waste dumped
around the reactor 10 years ago when it exploded and caught fire in
the world's worst nuclear accident.
   The New Scientist magazine reported the findings of a team of 59
scientists from eight countries led by Umberto Ensone of Italy's
Environment Protection Agency.
   Their investigation showed the lake most contaminated by
radioactivity from Chernobyl was 155 miles from the site.
   Fish in Russia's Lake Kojanovskoe had radiation levels 60 times
above European Union safety norms and all fishing should be banned,
the scientists said in their report, financed by the European
Commission.
   They said reservoirs downstream from the damaged reactor provide
drinking water for nine million Ukrainians as well as irrigation and
fish for another 23 million.