RT
RT and The Ecologist report that a huge forest fire near the abandoned contaminated zone around the Chernobyl disaster site in northern Ukraine is releasing plutonium as well as cesium and strontium into the smoke and carrying it far downwind. Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov wrote on his Facebook page Tuesday that the fire had escalated and strong winds were pushing it in the direction of the destroyed nuclear facility. It breached the 30km exclusion zone boundary and was about 20km from the Chernobyl installations.
Exacerbating the danger is the fact that there is plenty of tinder-dry fuel for the fire. USC biologist Timothy Mousseau reported in a 2014 study published in the journal Oecologia that organisms which drive the process of decay in healthy forests have been decimated by the radiation, leaving an accumulation of dry leaf litter, dead branches and trees. The vegetation and deadfall in a large region near the Chernobyl facility has had 29 years to uptake contamination and incorporate the radionuclides into tissues, which when burned releases those radionuclides to the smoke.
Unfortunately, there is no real-time radiation monitoring system in the Chernobyl area, so no one's sure exactly where the contaminants are going. Particularly the plutonium, which is difficult to detect as an alpha-emitter. Fortunately, you can see and smell smoke before it dissipates. The distribution of radionuclides can be presumed worst where the smoke plumes travel and underneath them as the radionuclides fall out or are brought down by rain. Some amount of contamination will travel much farther, so anyone downwind should take precautions.
The danger is entirely from the radioactive material deposited in 1986 by the original disaster, which extends to a broad region of northern Europe. The sarcophagus over reactor 4 is not going to burn, nor are the other abandoned reactor buildings at the facility, and no new nuclear reactions are going on. Some people have been evacuated, the public has been warned by radiation experts to "shelter in place." Firefighters working the line closest to the Chernobyl facility are said to be using respirators and face masks.
The danger of re-release from the originally deposited contamination is something that residents of the Ukraine will have to be wary of for about 300 years in the case of cesium-137 and strontium-90, and basically forever for things like plutonium isotopes and 'fuel fleas', dust-sized particles of fuel. This problem remains following any nuclear disaster involving melted, exploding reactors, including the three that occurred in 2011 at Fukushima in Japan. The danger never really goes away, though new generations may forget about it over of time. And suffer accordingly.
The Basics [Shelter In Place]
• Think of nuclear radiation as an invisible layer of dust on all surfaces that needs to be carefully cleaned away and managed
• Create an air tight seal in your home (duct tape comes in handy)
• Aggressively clean off surfaces in your home without creating dust (wet wipes and water filtered vacuums)
• Keep food in clean, sealed containers
• When you go outside, wear a set of coveralls or a duster over your clothes
• Keep outdoor clothes, shoes and/or boots in one small area next to the door to avoid bringing contamination into the living area
• Shower every time you come indoors from having spent more than a few minutes outdoors
• Use good quality dust masks to cover your mouth and nose when going outdoors
• Keep all windows closed (even if it's nice outside)
• Seal all doors that open to the outside
• Carry young children while outdoors or going to and from a vehicle
• Keep pets indoors as much as possible for the duration. Rub them down with a wet towel near the door when they come in, especially paws
• Sleep at least two feet above the floor
• Keep pots, pans, plates, silverware and utensils in clean cabinets
• Rinse your cooking utensils, plates, silverware, glassware
• Rinse the outside of food cans before opening
• Do not do anything that can stir up dust (don't use duster or a broom)
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