Forest fire near Chernobyl

[Hilander]

A forest fire broke out Tuesday near the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine, scene of the world’s worst civil nuclear disaster in 1986, but posed no danger to the site, officials said.

Forest fire rages near Chernobyl nuclear site

They say that now but lets see if they get it put out before it gets any closer. Its about 9 miles away from Chernobyl right now but fires can spread fast, which their interior minister has warned.

Those trees around the nuclear site probably still contain a lot of radiation. If they caught on fire that would be released into the atmosphere.

Thoughts?

 

[The_Chameleon]

If radiation levels were concentrated enough in the trees that they would represent a significant threat if the trees burned, I would suspect the trees wouldn't be alive to begin with. It would be a dead zone around there with little if anything to burn. Released radioactive materials might function as a bit of a dirty bomb within the immediate area though but should be dissipated significantly further out.


- Cham

 

[Hilander]

I disagree, dead trees from the radiation leak are not decomposing properly and there is also radiation locked up in the needles of Scots pines. If it catches on fire radiation particles could end up in the atmosphere.

A consortium of Ukrainian and international scientists is making an urgent call for a $13.5m (£8.28m) programme to prevent potentially catastrophic wildfires inside the exclusion zone surrounding Chernobyl's ruined nuclear power plant.

The fear is that fires in the zone could release clouds of radioactive particles that are, at the moment, locked up in trees, held mainly in the needles and bark of Scots pines.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/apr/26/chernobyl-radioactive-fires-global-danger

Other studies have found that the Chernobyl area is at risk of fire, and 27 years’ worth of leaf litter, Mousseau and his colleagues think, would likely make a good fuel source for such a forest fire. This poses a more worrying problem than just environmental destruction: Fires can potentially redistribute radioactive contaminants to places outside of the exclusion zone, Mousseau says. “There is growing concern that there could be a catastrophic fire in the coming years,” he says.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/scien...byl-arent-decaying-properly-180950075/?no-ist

 

[Dr4gon]

And it wouldnt only be the dead pines in the Red Forest. There are lots of plants that are radioresistant. Thats why they wanna replace the dead pine trees with Birch and Aspen trees - both trees have a higher radioresistance than pines.
]URL]http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/chornobyl/redforest.htm[/URL]

Also some crops are radioresistant like soybeans. And there are soybeans growing near Chernobyl too.
Anyway the weather service says the winds will change to the suoth on 1 May so any radiation will also be blown into Kiev. They already have issues about radiation that may be blowing into Belarus. A small part of that country was also nearly abandoned after the Chernobyl accident in 1986.

Atm the fire is under control but I really think they needa take geiger counters into the exclusion zone and learn how much radiation is still there. A lot of radiation may have sunk into the ground. The nuclear scientists are debating about how much radiation there is but the best way to know is to find out.
Well the most important issue is the concrete containment wall. If a fire ever reaches that it will release massive new waves of radiation.

 

[Hilander]

Considering the concrete sarcophagus is cracking a fire would be the worst thing that could happen now. Be glad when they get the new steel cover on it.