World Notes SOVIET UNION

In the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the Kremlin insisted it would not back away from its ambitious plan to quintuple nuclear power output by the year 2000. But officials underestimated the fears created by the accident. Komsomolskaya Pravda, the Communist Party youth newspaper, disclosed last week that the government had made an unprecedented decision to scrap construction of an atomic power plant in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar (cost so far: $43 million) simply because residents were adamantly against it. Krasnodar is not alone. The article said residents of some two dozen localities are "fiercely" protesting atomic energy stations operating or being built in their areas.