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CRIIRAD monitoring Kiev nuclear risk of Chernobyl radioactive plumes #Strontium90 #Plutonium #Cesium137/134

Fires in contaminated areas
Still no worries for France but the situation is getting worse around Chernobyl

Next report Tuesday 14th 2020

The fires in the highly contaminated area of ​​Polesskoye, located some 50 km west of
the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, are still active, but other fires have developed during the week, in the heart of the 30 kilometer zone. The fire in the Korogodsky forest is thus located only a few kilometers from the damaged reactor (see illustration above).

Besides the resuspension in the atmosphere of cesium 137 accumulated in the biomass (and probably also plutonium and strontium 90), questions arise about the safety of nuclear installations. The April 9, Ukrainian authorities 1 said: “Large-scale fires can threaten security in the region as well as the facilities located in the exclusion zone where the radioactive waste, used nuclear fuel and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant ”and“ Due to the heavy smoke, it is impossible to precisely determine the area affected by the fire, which, according to preliminary, may be 100 ha ‘.
According to the DAZV agency, the State Agency in charge of the Management of the Forbidden Zone 2, the gamma dose rates measured by sensors located in areas close to fires have fluctuation levels usual.

But the concentration of cesium 137 in the air in the heart of the prohibited area is high. The maximum value of 54 microbecquerels per cubic meter published on April 9 by this agency corresponds to a measurement on a sensor which is not necessarily the most exposed. The theoretical values ​​for cesium 137 calculated by modeling 3 could indeed exceed a priori by place the 30 Bq / m 3. The agency said on April 9 that the admissible doses would not be exceeded for firefighters, provided that they wear protective respiratory gear.
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As indicated in our previous press release 4, the contaminated plumes first headed for the
south towards the city of Kiev. According to the models carried out by the Ukrainian services, the increases theoretical maximum point doses of the activity of cesium 137 in air had been evaluated at 2 mBq / m 3
for April 8. The samples taken in Kiev on April 8 by the Ukrainian services 5 showed values between 5 and 7 mBq / m 3 between 12.25pm ​​and 4.35pm. These are values ​​several hundred times higher than laughs at the level of background noise. The induced doses remain effectively low for the inhabitants of Kiev.
But the impact is cumulative and the fires are not extinguished.
The models of the contaminated plumes put online by the Ukrainian specialized services indicate trajectories towards north 6 of Ukraine from 9 to 10 April, then again towards Kiev 7, from 10 to April 11. Extracts from the official models are reproduced below (activity of cesium 137 in air).
Plume simulations contaminated by cesium 137 (extracts) – Source: OSTC
CRIIRAD is monitoring the situation closely.
In France, as expected, the measurements carried out live by the warning beacons operated by CRIIRAD in Rhône valley (for example in Montélimar) did not show an increase in the radioactivity of atmospheric dust. The gamma probe located in Geneva did not reveal any anomalies.

The CRIIRAD proceeded however this morning April 10 to a sample of aerosol filter on one of the beacons in order to verify, with much higher precision than live measurements allow, as the concentration of cesium 137 in the air masses potentially impacted by the first fires remains very low (this as indicated by the models).
The results will be posted online on Tuesday at https://balises.criirad.org/

Source for blogpost (In French) content;

Click to access 2020-04-10_CPCRIIRAD_Incendies_Tchernobyl2.pdf

April 12, 2020 - Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized