High-Range Dosimeters Confiscated

Plant safety officer Aleksandr Yuvchenko and others report that dosimeters capable of measuring radiation above 3.6 roentgens per hour are locked away or confiscated by supervisors. Workers and firefighters are given only low-range instruments that go off-scale, leading them to believe the situation is less severe than it is. This suppression of accurate radiation data is one of the first acts of the cover-up, later cited in the IAEA INSAG-7 report.