NO PROOF OF MORE CHERNOBYL GRAIN DAMAGE-DIPLOMATS

  Western agricultural attaches in Moscow
  said they had no evidence to substantiate rumours that last
  April's Chernobyl nuclear disaster had a worse effect on Soviet
  grain than first reported.
      Current Soviet interest in chartering ships to carry grain
  from the U.S. Helped prompt the rumours on world markets. But
  the diplomats said they had seen no reports in the state press
  and heard no comments from officials to substantiate them.
      The official media was initially slow in reporting the
  accident but, under Kremlin leader Mikhail Gorbachev's campaign
  for openness, gradually gave more and more details.
      Land around the nuclear plant was contaminated to varying
  degrees. Some is now being used to grow industrial crops
  instead of grain.
  

