April 27 1986 From the Diary of Vitaly I Vorotnikov Dolgikh reported that early on the night of the 27 th Moscow was informed that the accident was much more severe than according to the initial information The reactor is damaged The level of radioactivity is rising sharply On the 27 th the decision was made to evacuate residents of the NPS town of Pripyat Units of civil defense and the Ministry of Interior were dispatched Measures were undertaken to dump sand and lead on the reactor Source Vorotnikov V I A eto bylo tak Iz dnevnika chlena PB TsK KPSS Moscow Soyuz Veteranov Knigoizdaniya SIMAR 1995 p 95 Translated by Svetlana Savranskaya for the National Security Archive This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu