Nuclear panic hits Russians

MOSCOW - Russian officials on Saturday restarted a nuclear reactor that sparked panic in southern Russia when it automatically shut down Thursday.

After the shutdown, rumors immediately spread there had been a major accident. Officals insisted there had been no radiation leakage from reactor No. 2 at the Balakovo nuclear power plant in the Saratov region.

The reactor, shut down because of a turbine malfunction, restarted and was running normally, Russia's Rosenergoatom company said.

Hundreds of residents fled homes near the reactor, dozens of businesses temporarily shut down and pharmacies sold out of iodine, Russia's Kommersant newspaper reported. Iodine can block absorption of radiation.

"The whole city lost their heads," Anna Vinogradova, head of Balakovo's Department of Environmental Protection, told Kommersant. "All the telephone lines were busy. People were telling each other to drink vodka, take iodine and no matter what, not to use public water."

The former Soviet Union was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident when a reactor at the Chernobyl atomic plant in Ukraine exploded in April 1986. Families of station workers in the nearby town were not informed for days.

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