Jiří Kožmín, Czech Republic
Ondřej Kolínský interviewed his mother’s boyfriend, Jiří Kožmín, who used the process of radiation in his job and thus had his doubts when Czechoslovakian newspapers initially wrote that there were no radioactive leaks in Chernobyl.
My interviewee’s name is Jiří Kožmín, he is my mother’s boyfriend. He was born in 1954 in Prague, studied a technical school and has worked as an engineer ever since. He says he understood quite well the basics of nuclear reaction and the way power plants work from some introductory courses in school.
On April 29th when the first article about the accident was published in Czech newspapers, Jiří says he was quite certain that it was impossible that there was no leak of radioactivity as claimed in the paper. By that time he was working in Railroad Research Institute as a defectoscopist (the defects are found by shining the rails through by a strong radiance) and thanks to that had some devices used to measure radiation. As it was raining that day and he knew that the radioactive particles would be brought down by the drops of rain, he went outside to the Prague streets to check if their level changed. He found no deviation from the usual level, though.
Later on, he learnt from his friends working in similar area at the airport and using probably more exact instruments that the radioactive background was roughly at five times of its normal level. Although the media were remaining silent about the leak and the possible danger, people knew pretty well what was happening because this information spread quite quickly by the oral way.
Read the full interview
