Fires raise Chernobyl radiation fears
Source: Agencies |
August 12, 2010, Thursday
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RUSSIAN emergency workers have increased forest patrols in a western region previously contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, trying to prevent wildfires from spreading harmful radiation.
At least six wildfires were spotted in the Bryansk region this week - the part of Russia that suffered the most from the Chernobyl catastrophe - and fire crews quickly extinguished all of them, Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Irina Yegorushkina said yesterday.
The ministry also reported sporadic wildfires last week, but all had been put out, she said.
Radiation experts from Moscow conducted a thorough check of the Bryansk area and concluded there has been no increase in radiation levels, she said.
Large forested areas in Bryansk were contaminated when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant's Reactor No. 4 exploded during a pre-dawn test on April 26, 1986, spewing radioactive clouds over much of the western Soviet Union and northern Europe.
Radioactive particles settled into the soil, and environmentalists warned that they could be thrown up into the air once again by wildfires and blown into other areas by the wind.
Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu acknowledged the danger last week, and his department says they are taking all precautions.
"We had several fires, but the situation here is not as difficult as in the areas around Moscow," Yegorushkina said yesterday.
The chief of the Bryansk forest protection service said his agency had increased patrols around the forests, particularly in the southwest section affected by Chernobyl.
"There is a danger, but we are controlling the situation," agency chief Vladimir Rozinkevich said.
Vasily Tuzov, a deputy head of the federal forest protection service, said wildfires engulfed a total of some 3,900 hectares in several regions of Russia hit by the Chernobyl fallout, including the Bryansk region, but most of them had been put out.
He said it wasn't immediately clear whether any of the fires had spread any radioactive particles into previously unpolluted areas.
"Our workers will need to conduct measurements to determine that," Tuzov said. "All we know now is that there have been fires in the areas with higher radiation levels."
A top Russian forest expert said that the mixture of radioactive elements that remained in the forest floor in the affected regions remains dangerous.
"A cloud may come up with soot and spread over a huge territory," said Alexander Isayev of the Moscow-based Center for Forest Ecology and Productivity.
At least six wildfires were spotted in the Bryansk region this week - the part of Russia that suffered the most from the Chernobyl catastrophe - and fire crews quickly extinguished all of them, Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Irina Yegorushkina said yesterday.
The ministry also reported sporadic wildfires last week, but all had been put out, she said.
Radiation experts from Moscow conducted a thorough check of the Bryansk area and concluded there has been no increase in radiation levels, she said.
Large forested areas in Bryansk were contaminated when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant's Reactor No. 4 exploded during a pre-dawn test on April 26, 1986, spewing radioactive clouds over much of the western Soviet Union and northern Europe.
Radioactive particles settled into the soil, and environmentalists warned that they could be thrown up into the air once again by wildfires and blown into other areas by the wind.
Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu acknowledged the danger last week, and his department says they are taking all precautions.
"We had several fires, but the situation here is not as difficult as in the areas around Moscow," Yegorushkina said yesterday.
The chief of the Bryansk forest protection service said his agency had increased patrols around the forests, particularly in the southwest section affected by Chernobyl.
"There is a danger, but we are controlling the situation," agency chief Vladimir Rozinkevich said.
Vasily Tuzov, a deputy head of the federal forest protection service, said wildfires engulfed a total of some 3,900 hectares in several regions of Russia hit by the Chernobyl fallout, including the Bryansk region, but most of them had been put out.
He said it wasn't immediately clear whether any of the fires had spread any radioactive particles into previously unpolluted areas.
"Our workers will need to conduct measurements to determine that," Tuzov said. "All we know now is that there have been fires in the areas with higher radiation levels."
A top Russian forest expert said that the mixture of radioactive elements that remained in the forest floor in the affected regions remains dangerous.
"A cloud may come up with soot and spread over a huge territory," said Alexander Isayev of the Moscow-based Center for Forest Ecology and Productivity.
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