Yelena Melikhova, head of Laboratory of Social-Psychological Consequences of Radioactive Accidents of Nuclear Safety Institute

– Such rumors appear almost every year

Last weekend some sources alleged in the internet and by means of SMS that there had been accidents at some of the Russian nuclear power plants, particularly, at Kursk, Novovoronezh, Balakovo and Volgodonsk NPPs. The Information and PR Center of Energoatom Concern and the regional departments of the Emergency Ministry of Russia have refuted this information.

There are lots of suspects but you can’t be called a thief unless you have been caught red-handed. Such rumors appear almost every year but no single source has been caught so far. Nobody knows (including our foreign colleagues) who is actually to blame. They abroad also face such situations from time to time. So, we can say that this is not a national phenomenon. I think that what we must know is why such rumors work out. Why haven’t our people become immune to them? 

The point is that nuclear accidents are a very rare event. Dangerous epidemics or big chemical accidents happen once in 1–3 years. The last nuclear accident took place as long ago as 1986. People have no personal experience of how to overcome such strong stresses. What they have is just fear.

Fear generates alarm. Chronic stress needs to come out and it does in the form of emotional outburst. In such situations rumors work quicker than cellular communication. Sometimes they cover the whole of the country and can be caused by a very ordinary insignificant event.

I trust the data published on www.russianatom.ru because I know where this data is from and how it is placed on the site. Those who don’t know the details can rely on the very existence of public control over such information. No respectable nuclear agency would risk its reputation by publishing faked data, would it? Any person with a dose-meter can confirm that these figures are true. It seems that this logic works: after the peak traffic on www.russianatom.ru on June 5 the public concern has ebbed.