Ukraine: Forest fires approaching Chernobyl dangerously

Witnesses accuse government of covering up the severity of fire near the site of the nuclear disaster

Chernobyl

Wendelin Jacober image by Pixabay - Public Domain

Forest fires that have been raging in Ukraine for about 10 days are getting dangerously close to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and a radioactive waste disposal site, according to local activists. Ukrainian authorities say that the situation is under control and that fires are common in the region. More than 300 firefighters are working to contain the fire.

A video posted by a Chernobyl tour operator showed flames and a cloud of smoke rising in view of the sarcophagus that protects the nuclear reactor shell of Unit 4 at Chernobyl, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history.

The tour operator, Yaroslav Yemelianenko, wrote that the fire had hit the abandoned town of Pripyat and was just 2 km from the nuclear power plant and the Pidlisny radioactive disposal site.

“The situation is critical. The zone is burning,” he wrote in a post on Facebook, accompanied by a video of the fire. Yemelianenko, a member of a public council of the Ukrainian emergency service, also accused the government of covering up the seriousness of the fires.

Ukraine's emergency service said on Monday the fire was "difficult" but called for calm, saying all levels of radiation in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, were normal and urging people not to listen to "apocalyptic messages" .

"The main thing we can say is that there is no threat to the nuclear plant, spent fuel storage and other critical locations in the exclusion zone," the agency said.

The agency said 310 firefighters and dozens of firefighters from the corporation, as well as three aircraft and three helicopters, were sent to extinguish the fire. Exactly how far the fire was from the former reactor site or other sensitive locations was not reported.

On Monday (13), a member of the Russian branch of Greenpeace told Reuters that the fires were larger than official Ukrainian estimates and could pose a health risk. "A fire that approaches a nuclear or dangerous radiation facility is always a risk," said Rashid Alimov, head of Greenpeace's energy projects in Russia.

There are fires in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, a 30-kilometer area that surrounds the former nuclear reactor, where authorities have banned people's lives since April 4th.

Police claim that the fires resulted from fire placed on grass by residents. The Ukrainian parliament on Monday raised arson fines to more than 4,500 pounds, an 18-fold increase adopted amid considerable public anger over the fires.

The fires gained strength over the weekend due to strong winds. This Tuesday morning (14), the local government said that the rain that had fallen in the last hours in the region helped firefighters to circumscribe the fire. According to a statement from the Emergency Situations Service, there are only "isolated outbreaks". However, no data or details about the spread of the flames were released.



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