nuclear-news

Despite Ukrainian Prime Minister’s reassurances, Wildfires near Chernobyl are potentially catastrophic

Radio Free Europe 6th June 2018 , Scientists have been concerned for decades about potentially catastrophic wildfires inside the exclusion zone around the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine — the site in 1986 of the world’s worst nuclear accident.

That’s because trees and brush in the zone have absorbed radioactive particles that can be released into the air by the smoke of a wildfire.

Not surprisingly, some experts are skeptical about Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman’s claim on Facebook that “there’s no need to worry” about a June 5 blaze that raced through the so-called Red Forest — one of the most contaminated patches of forest near Chernobyl.
https://www.rferl.org/a/prime-minister-says-don-t-worry-but-scientists-concerned-about-chernobyl-wildfires/29276072.html

June 9, 2018 - Posted by Christina MacPherson | climate change, safety, Ukraine