Tag: Ukraine

The Prime Minister of the Ukraine was quoted as saying the large fire east of the melted-down and abandoned Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor is “localized and contained. Radiation levels are normal”, he told a government meeting on April 29.

On April 28 we published a photo showing the location of the fire about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Chernobyl. It included smoke being pushed to the north and one cloud that could have been a pyrocumulus created by the fire. Today, April 29, we found a satellite photo (above) that was taken later in the day on April 28, that showed massive pyrocumulus clouds, which would indicate extreme fire behavior from a very active fire that was far from being contained.

The blaze, which we estimate to be at least 9,000 acres, is burning in an area contaminated with radioactive particles which could become airborne during a wildfire. It is burning within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, also known as the 30 Kilometer Zone, or the Chernobyl Zone of Alienation.

The video below was uploaded April 29, 2015. Here is the description:

Fire engulfed a large sector of woods in the exclusion zone around the destroyed Chernobyl nuclear power plant on Tuesday.

Other articles on Wildfire Today tagged Chernobyl.

A wildfire is burning within about 10 miles (16 kilometers) of the Chernobyl nuclear plant that melted down in the Ukraine in 1986. According to NASA imagery, the fire appears to be well within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, also known as the 30 Kilometer Zone, or the Chernobyl Zone of Alienation. The area is still heavily contaminated with nuclear radiation and for years officials have been contemplating how to mitigate the potential for a fire in the dead forest, killed by the melt-down, which would release radioactive particles into the smoke and be carried downwind, perhaps for very long distances.

An article at RTnews reports that the Ukraine Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said the fire has burned about 400 hectares (988 acres).

Our extremely rough estimate of the size of the fire based on the satellite imagery is that it has burned about 9,000 acres. When the photo was taken the smoke was being pushed north, at about 90 degrees to the path that would take it closer to the disabled nuclear plant, east of the fire.

Excerpts from the article:

“The forest fire situation around the Chernobyl power plant has worsened,” a statement on Avakov’s Facebook page says.

“The forest fire is heading in the direction of Chernobyl’s installations. Treetop flames and strong gusts of wind have created a real danger of the fire spreading to an area within 20 kilometers of the power plant.

Police and National Guard units are on high alert. Ukraine’s Prime Minister personally went to the affected area to oversee the firefighting. He says the situation is under control, “but this is the biggest fire since 1992.”

The potential danger in this fire comes from the radioactive contaminants the burning plants have absorbed, ecologist Dmitry Shevchenko told RT. “A lot of radionuclides have accumulated in the soil, the trees and other plants. And of course when something like a fire happens, together with the smoke, the radionuclides can travel great distances.”

We have written numerous times about the challenges presented by the contaminated vegetation near Chernobyl. Articles tagged Chernobyl.

Last month we wrote about the forest surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in the Ukraine; the reactor that melted down and burned April 26, 1986. The area is still heavily contaminated with nuclear radiation and the officials there have been contemplating how to mitigate the potential for a fire in the dead forest, killed by the melt down, which would release radioactive particles into the smoke and be carried downwind. They even consulted with an Oregon logger about options for harvesting the radioactive trees so that they could be used as fuel in what might be the world’s largest “closed loop” biomass plant, gasifying wood to create synthesis gas (or “syngas”) in order to generate electricity.

A new article in The Daily Climate looks more at the firefighting aspect, should a wildfire occur in the dead forest before any of it is harvested and removed. Here are some excerpts from the article:

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“…A 2002 test fire offers insight on the scope of the radioactive risk. Set to assess plume and radionuclide behavior, the two-acre ground fire near the failed power plant released up to five percent of the cesium and strontium in the biomass. A high-intensity crown fire would release much higher amounts than burning needles and leaf litter, said Vasyl Yoschenko, who set the fire and heads the radioecological monitoring laboratory at the Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology. Other studies predict that the fine particles emitted from a forest fire could be transported hundreds of miles away.

[…]

After years of anxiety, the results of the study surprised [Chad Oliver, director of the Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry at Yale University, who has studied the region since 2005]. People living outside the exclusion zone would not have to be evacuated. There would be no cause for panic in Kiev, he said.

But the predictions for [Nikolay] Ossienko and his fellow firefighters are not so rosy. They would be exposed to radiation beyond all acceptable levels. In addition to “normal” external radiation, they would be inhaling radionuclides in the smoke they breathe – being irradiated both outside and inside.

On top of the significant health risks, these crews are utterly unequipped to fight large fires, Zibtsev said. At Ossienko’s fire station near the Belarus border, four well-maintained fire trucks gleam inside a shed, all ready to roll. But the fire lanes designed to get them to a blaze quickly are untended, often blocked by fallen trees and brush. Ossienko is proud of the Soviet tank modified for firefighting with a 20-foot blade like a gigantic pointed cow-catcher. He says it can “crush trees and brush – anything.” But reporting smokes by climbing fire towers is no one’s idea of an early-warning system, and the lone helicopter occasionally available lacks even a bucket for dropping water on a fire.”