Minsk
Belarusian scientists believe that the Soviet Union seeded clouds to cause rainfall over Belarus during the 1987 Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, Radio Free Europe reported. A plume of radiation from Chernobyl, located in Ukraine, was drifting northeast toward Moscow when heavy rains washed most of the radiation down on Belarus. Vera Rich, who was the Soviet correspondent for the science journal Nature at the time of the accident, said that many Western scientists give the cloud-seeding theory great credence. But no Western or Belarusian scientists will go on the record with the allegation for fear of losing access to the contaminated sites. Thyroid cancer has skyrocketed among Belarusian children because of the radiation fallout.
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