Good evening. This is the CBS Evening News. Dan Rather reported.
U.S. officials tonight believe the nuclear disaster in the heart of Soviet farmland began Saturday and isn't over yet.
Amid widely conflicting casualty reports, a U.S. spy satellite photo today picked up some of the physical damage.
Defense Department correspondent David Martin reports tonight that photos showed this, a gaping hole in the reactor building roof.
Caved-in walls, smoke rising from the reactor building in what is apparently a still out-of-control fire.
Much remains unknown.
In this unfolding nuclear nightmare of an atomic reactor gone wild near Kiev, this is what we are hearing tonight.
A United Press International report so far unconfirmed that more than 2,000 may be dead.
Soviet government-controlled television officially puts the number of dead at two.
In Sweden, as elsewhere, officials are convinced there was a nuclear reactor core meltdown at Chernobyl.
They say radiation may still be spewing into the air.
At an airport in Finland, an arriving passenger from Kiev tells of taxis and buses being commandeered,
purpose, evacuating thousands from the danger zone.
The radiation cloud, it last reported, is blowing back over Soviet territory before being dispersed worldwide.
U.S. government trackers are monitoring radiation levels in all 50 states.
First wave expected in this country this weekend in the West.
No danger to people in the USA predicted.
And the Soviets have appealed to Sweden and West Germany for help.
United States offers to give Moscow technical and medical help still go unanswered.
That United Press International report of mass death from the atomic reactor disaster comes from a woman in Kiev.
She is described by UPI as someone with contacts in Soviet rescue and health circles.
The woman said 80 people died immediately.
Two thousand more, she told UPI, died on the way to hospitals.
One hospital in Kiev, this woman said, and I quote, is packed with people who suffer from radiation sickness, end quote.
There is no independent confirmation of any of that.
The tightly controlled Soviet government media are telling their own people next to nothing.
They admit, officially, just two deaths.
Our correspondent reports began with Wyatt Andrews in Moscow.
For most of the day, the Soviet policy was silence.
Despite an admission that an accident had happened, there was no coverage, nothing, in the Soviet morning newspapers.
Only Radio Moscow, a station named mostly at foreign audiences, reported a disaster, saying this.
Efforts are being applied to eliminate the consequences of the accident and help the victims.
Tonight on the 9 o'clock news, the first detailed confirmation of one of the worst nuclear accidents ever.
Two dead went to report, a radiation leak that had been stabilized, the evacuation of a town and three villages, and other victims getting medical attention.
It is clear there is much more here that is not being reported.
On the streets of Moscow, the reaction was predictable, a public mostly unaware.
I didn't manage to see that, this man said, and then he added, was that the accident in America?
Both the Swedish and Danish embassies sent envoys to the Soviet Foreign Ministry today, asking the Soviets to be more forthcoming.
Even today, Soviets reached on the telephone, were saying that nothing was wrong in Kiev, a woman at an in-tourist hotel.
City is full of tourists, different countries, the hotel is full, nothing happened, an enormous day.
But the calm Soviet front on this story is being challenged now, even in the Eastern Bloc.
Polish television tonight warned all of its citizens to wash all fresh vegetables,
and some milk sales, the warning went on, will be restricted because of possible contamination.
Despite hints that the Soviets are growing more open with public information,
it's likely that international detection and not a sense of openness forced the Soviets into admitting this accident.
The same Soviet propaganda machine that called the space shuttle accident an example of why America can't be trusted with technology,
is in no rush now to herald any Soviet technological mistake.
Wyatt Andrews, CBS News, Moscow.
In Stockholm today and throughout Europe, scientists monitoring the aftermath of the nuclear accident said,
they're certain the core of the Soviet reactor has melted down, by far the worst nuclear accident in history.
I'm absolutely certain it's a meltdown. There's no question about that.
The Soviets have turned to Sweden and West Germany, two countries well-versed in nuclear technology,
for advice on how to fight the fire raging in the core of the reactor.
The Soviet officials came to see us asking for advice on possible contacts for help on reactor accidents on the one side and on graphite fire on the other side.
That means they're in real trouble. It's very unusual for the Russians to ask for help.
Even if they have a ship sinking, they're reluctant to ask for help.
But the Swedes could only tell the Soviets to contact Great Britain, where the last graphite fire hit the windscale nuclear plant in 1957.
In London today, radiation levels were completely normal, but only the weather saved Western Europe from wider contamination.
Undoubtedly, had the wind been in a different direction, then yes, certain parts of Western Europe would have been affected by it.
In Sweden, radiation has begun to fall from levels that reach ten times the normal readings.
Officials stressed there was never any great danger.
Some Swedes flocked to pharmacies buying iodine pills to ward off the effects of radiation, but most showed little concern.
I feel it's an accident, but I don't think we're in danger.
We're so used to living with the threat that we don't even react to it anymore.
The sheer scale of the disaster will undoubtedly produce demands for stricter controls on nuclear power.
Already, the Swedes are calling for all nuclear programs to be placed under international supervision.
Derek Blakely, CBS News, Stockholm.
U.S. officials said tonight they are convinced the Soviet reactor building is still on fire, graphite burning 4,000 degrees hot.
It is their view that it will keep burning for days and that nothing can be done to stop it.
Among the biggest dangers now, contamination of the key of water supply.
Susan Spencer has been looking at the design of this Soviet reactor, a design for disaster.
Administration officials now believe a chemical, not a nuclear blast, probably led to the Soviet disaster,
which is complicated by the very design of Soviet reactors.
The design makes it very difficult to control either escaping radiation or the inferno caused by what experts fear was a meltdown.
Unlike most U.S. reactors whose core is under a concrete and steel dome, Soviet reactors have no protective shell around them.
A physicist who taught in the Soviet Union before he emigrated today blamed that on Soviet cost-cutting and ineptitude.
People who was in charge, they are not expert in safety.
While U.S. reactors are water-cooled, cooling in Soviet reactors takes place inside a graphite core.
The graphite itself can speed up an out-of-control nuclear reaction and it also can produce a fire so hot
it would be virtually impossible to put out, to stop the escaping radiation.
This could be sort of an ongoing spewing type operation that would continue as long as the fire were burning.
With the fire reported still burning, energy experts worry about the other three now unmanned reactors in this complex.
And health experts worry for the fate of the 20,000 workers in the community living around it.
The people in the Ukraine face radiation illness, which means they will lose their immunity to disease.
And a normal cold or a normal germs will get into them and they will face death within 30 to 60 days.
Others were hopeful that the Soviet citizens nearby would be given pills to counteract expected exposure to radioactive iodine, which can cause cancer.
The fact that individuals have died so rapidly following exposure would indicate to me that large radiation doses must have been received.
It may take weeks before the immediate death toll from the accident is known. It literally will take years before anyone can judge the long-term effects on the land, the water, and the people.
Susan Spencer, CBS News, Washington.
[♪techno music playing.♪
Given that any serious nuclear reactor accident carries the potential for short-term and long-term danger,
there's little doubt tonight that the Chernobyl catastrophe is probably the worst nuclear accident and it's in one of the worst places possible.
The nuclear plant is just 60 miles north of Kiev, third largest Soviet city.
In the United States, it would rank number four, right behind Chicago.
Why build reactors so near Kiev?
That question was asked in the February issue of Soviet Life, an English-language picture magazine published by the Soviet government.
The answer, quote, the odds of a meltdown are one in 10,000 years.
The plants have safe and reliable controls that are protected from any breakdown, so safe that the Kiev reservoir supposedly is built between the plant and the city.
Radiation may affect not only the people of Kiev, but the economy of all the Soviet Union.
This area is the country's breadbasket, their equivalent of Kansas.
Instead of the Mississippi, they have the Nieper, the threat now, radioactive contamination of the water supply.
It's in the water. It can be imbibed or drunk by animals or conceivably by people.
Gradually, it would get into the food chain by being incorporated into a vegetable or a grain, which then would get into the food chain by whatever means it does,
whether animals eating the grain, people eating the grain.
What happened near Kiev three days ago today caused the Chicago Board of Trade grain prices to jump,
even though experts don't know yet how badly Soviet agriculture will really be affected.
Late today, I spoke with Columbia University Soviet expert Jonathan Sanders.
Professor, if this area is roughly the Kansas City of the Soviet Union, if this is the breadbasket of the whole Soviet Union,
how serious a blow could this be to the Soviet agricultural economy?
Mr. Radler, this could be a very serious problem for the Soviets, but not a problem that they can't solve.
They have other regions, the North Caucasus, the new lands opened up by Khrushchev, but this is a crucial one.
It probably will mean that the Soviets will have to buy more grain on the world market,
probably from countries like Argentina and perhaps the United States.
You don't think it's enough, however, to cave in the Soviet agricultural economy?
I don't think so. The economy is not as fragile as many Americans would like to think it is.
The Soviets are quite capable of tightening their belts to a degree that we really can't imagine here.
Now, is there a potential Chernobyl-type disaster in America's own future?
Correspondent Bob Schieffer has been investigating that.
Monk nuclear disasters are staged as a matter of routine at reactor sites.
The law requires them to practice safety procedures.
But could something like the Soviet disaster really happen here?
Frighteningly, some experts and officials say yes.
The probability of a core meltdown at a U.S. nuclear plant could be 45 percent in the next 20 years.
Markey's statement is based on a little-noticed report issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last year.
It is an inherently unsafe technology that requires constant attention.
Since the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island, the nuclear industry has been increasingly under fire.
There are 98 commercial reactors operating in this country, providing 16 percent of the nation's electricity,
a greater reliance on nuclear power than even the Soviet Union.
But since TMI, not a single new plant has been started here, and the Soviet accident is sure to cause new problems.
At TMI, huge containment facilities which surround commercial U.S. reactors trapped most of the escaping radiation.
That's not the case in the Soviet Union.
We understand that a lot of this has no containment at all.
It's just sitting there in a building like any fossil plant would be, you know.
There's no structure to contain it.
However, four reactors on the Savannah River and one at Hanford, Washington,
used by the military to make nuclear bomb components, are similar to the troubled Soviet reactor
in that they do not have containment shields.
That from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Kinds of consequences that would occur from a serious core melt from these production reactors
would be comparable to a nuclear power plant, would be comparable to what is occurring in the Soviet Union without question.
At a congressional hearing today, the administration argued other procedures make such plants safe enough.
But an official at one of the plants conceded, in a worst-case scenario, some radiation would escape.
Bob Schieffer, CBS News, New York.
The U.S. Commerce Department today reported that falling mortgage rates sent new home sales soaring by $1.5 billion.
That new home sales soaring by 27.4 percent for the month of March.
That puts sales of new single-family homes at a record seasonally adjusted annual rate of 903,000 units last month.
Thirteen weeks after the Challenger astronauts died reaching for the stars, their remains finally today came home.
Home to their families, home, as Eric Ingberg reports, to their national family as well.
Down the same road the Challenger astronauts traveled on launch morning, past hundreds of somber NASA colleagues,
the remains of seven brave Americans were born by seven hearses.
They were still together as a crew.
Seven flag-draped coffins were saluted by NASA officials as they were brought aboard a plane to begin a journey home to grieving families.
A nation stunned at the cruelty of losing its pride and joy will forever remember them as the first Americans to die on a space flight.
Dick Scobie, Mike Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judy Resnick, Ron McNair, Greg Jarvis, teacher in space Krista McCallum.
At Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the remains will be prepared for burial and turned over to families.
An astronaut followed each coffin from the plane.
There were no speeches, no ceremonies, and it seemed less painful and closer to the truth of their lives to think of all seven, not for this day, this end,
but for what they stood for, what they were trying to do.
Liftoff of the 25th space shuttle mission and it has cleared the tower.
The future doesn't belong to the faint-hearted. It belongs to the brave.
The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future and we'll continue to follow them.
Challenger, go with throttle up.
What a night can be.
Israeli police said today they captured alleged Palestinian guerrillas who have confessed to killing a British tourist in Jerusalem two days ago.
Two British hostages in Lebanon were murdered two weeks ago in retaliation for the U.S. attack on Libya, and so was American hostage Peter Kilburn.
Kilburn was buried today in San Francisco. Terry Drinkwater was there.
For 20 years, Peter Kilburn had been a librarian in Beirut. He was eulogized today by his lifelong friend, released hostage Reverend Benjamin Weir, who called him a gentle and friendly man.
He hoped. He invested himself, but he suffered and then died a brutal death. We miss him deeply.
Security tight because of bomb threats from anonymous callers. No explosives were found. Kilburn was given full military honors.
Meanwhile, there is a numbing fear shared among the families of the five hostages still missing. They pray together that no more will die.
Madness on the other side of the world bonds them together here.
There are no support groups for people in our position. So in essence, we've created our own support group. It has in essence become a family.
You feel that the pressure of not knowing gets so great. It's a constant knowing that you have made a commitment.
And we're going to do it and we're going to bring our loved ones home. We are Americans and our loved ones have been taken because they were Americans.
The people who are being held hostages are our families, but they could just as well be yours.
Each hostage family counts each day. They remember that Peter Kilburn survived in captivity for 501 days. Terry Drinkwater, CBS News, San Francisco.
In a royal but restrained service, the Duchess of Windsor was buried today at Windsor Castle outside London.
Her name was not mentioned once during the service. Among those present, Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, and most of the royal family, the former Mrs. Wallace Sumson of Baltimore-De-Forsi was buried next to her husband, King Edward VIII.
His abdication for her love 50 years ago rocked country and empire.
Your seat's so smart. If you're so smart, what cost it? Grease, food, hair, mama's catharose? Doesn't matter. It's the all purpose grain opener, Crystal Drano.
How about liquid plumber? No, it may not work on grease. Drano works on grease and food and hair. Love that Crystal Drano.
There's liquid Drano too. Liquid plumber can't feed it. In the cloud busting game, Drano's the name.
Right. There's only one name to know, Drano.
That's it. I like that.
Now, ooh, when muscle pain hits, I could miss a great shot. But today, instead of aspirin or Tylenol, I take Advil for muscle aches and minor arthritis pain.
Advil has a non-prescription strength of ibuprofen, the medicine and the prescription brand Motrin. Doctors have prescribed ibuprofen over 130 million times.
Advil's good for hours of relief, and Advil didn't upset my stomach. Advil, advanced medicine for pain.
I'll get him a picture of you. You are about to witness a crime. Oh, no. Oh, come on. Excuse me.
Do you want a picture together? We'll take it. That would be great. It's all set. All you do is... This couple is a couple of pickpockets.
Give us a smile. Ready? One, two, three. Great. Oh, thanks.
There's a lot of things that could happen to you. So don't carry cash. Carry American Express Travelers checks with over 1,000 travel service officers around the world.
Don't leave home without them. What a nice kid. Yeah.
Happily island hopping as he meanders his way to the Tokyo summit, President Reagan arrived tonight on the exotic Indonesian island of Bali.
and Indonesian President Saharto watched a performance by traditional Balinese dancers.
Image-conscious aides have been trying to get reporters to call this Mr. Reagan's
winds of freedom journey. But even as the president arrived,
Indonesia expelled one American and two Australian journalists
because of reports the Saharto government said were critical.
Bali is one of those rare places where time seems to stand still,
where life has a certain dream-like quality.
It's only one small part of a big, sprawling, complex nation.
CBS News correspondent Bob Simon profiles it.
Christopher Columbus was actually trying to get here when he discovered America,
the Spice Islands, the morning of the world they've been called,
the place where dawn begins.
Bali is a place where people don't wear watches.
They move with the precision of the seasons.
They're inspired with nature to fashion beauty and harmony
as if their work and their worship have been choreographed by their gods.
But this is not the land that time forgot. Appearances are deceiving.
In fact, these patties, which were cultivated before history was written,
are now growing the very latest strains of miracle rice.
In fact, 20 years ago, Indonesia imported more rice than any country in the world
and still thousands starved.
It's a great price for everyone and enough left over to export.
But the export that has made the difference is oil that accounts for 70 percent
of Indonesia's foreign earnings, a prosperity which the collapse of oil prices could jeopardize.
You can see oil money in Jakarta's sparkling new skyline.
You can see it in the shopping mall mentality of Indonesia's new middle class.
You can see it in the well-fed faces of children in the country.
Every dollar drop in the price of oil cost the country close to $400 million.
For the first time in two decades, the government has been forced to cut its budget.
That means hard times for the Indonesian people, reduction in development programs,
and that means a certain amount of pain that almost inevitably translates into political pressures.
The pressure could come from Islamic fundamentalists in this largest Muslim country in the world.
It could come from urban slums in a country where per capita income is still below $600 a year,
where the population of 160 million is expected to double in 50 years.
But Suharto rules with a strong arm and an iron fist,
manipulating people and political factions with the dexterity of a puppet master,
sometimes through a balance of forces, sometimes through force.
Suharto has ruled for 20 years with his generals and his credo that discipline must be defended against divisive forces,
such as freedom of the press, brigades of Suharto, brigades of the future, different forces, different desires.
They want jobs. They want better food.
And I think what's more important, they want participation in public affairs.
New hopes and hard times converging on a thousand islands. The Indonesian answer?
Smiling all the time and be patient.
Not as easy as it was when Indonesia was so far from the rest of the world,
so far that even Christopher Columbus got lost along the way.
Bob Simon, CBS News, Bali.
And that's the CBS Evening News for this Tuesday. Dan Rather reporting from New York.
We'll see you here again tomorrow. Good night.
Don't stop now. New Calc up here.
Nothing's gonna stop me now.