In addition to the virus: due to the wildfires in Chernobyl, the background radiation is twentyfold increased

Nature takes revenge on man not only through the viruses. It would seem that the long-forgotten Chernobyl reminds about itself again. Over the 34 years that have passed since the disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant, places in the neighborhood of the emergency power-generating unit covered by a "spacesuit" became quite safe and even turned into a place of pilgrimage of tourists from all over the world.

Irina Ziganshina

When it’s calm here, it’s safe to roam the forests near Chernobyl. However, everything changes when a fire starts, and they happen here regularly: during a fire, radiation, dormant in soil, foliage, wood, which are in the 30-km exclusion zone, is released. Last fire began last Saturday in the area of the village of Vladimirovka and eventually spread to more than 100 hectares.

As Yegor Firsov, head of the Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine, wrote on his blog, “In the center of a fire, radiation is above normal. The readings of the device are 2.3, when the norm is 0.14. But this is so only within the fire zone”

Now, according to the State Emergency Situations Service of Ukraine, 310 people and 90 pieces of equipment are fighting the fire, “the radiation background in the city of Kiev and the Kiev region is within the norm нормы ... ˃ in the exclusion zone and unconditional (mandatory) relocation equivalent dose rate power levels the gamma radiation did not change (Chernobyl - 0.021 mR / h. At DTP Dityatki 0.011 mR / h. At a control-permissible level of 0.055 mR / h). "

For several years now, experts have been warning about the dangers of forest fires around Chernobyl, and officials are calling for restricting access to the area and tightening fines for arsonists. However, the fires continue. Partly due to arsons - the culprit of the last fire, for example, was a 27-year-old guy who did it for fun. Partly, according to scientists, because of climate change: an increase in air temperature makes it drier in the forests and burns easier, and the decay rate seems to decrease, because radiation kills insects and microorganisms that destroy organics.