Moscow, April 26 (Interfax) - The Russian regions of Bryansk and Kaluga still have abnormally high radiation levels as a result of the Chornobyl disaster, a Russian governmental watchdog said on Monday, the 24th anniversary of the worst nuclear accident in history, in which about 5 million were injured or became ill.
The annual radiation levels in the two regions exceed the maximum normal annual radiation dose of 1 millisievert, the Federal Surveillance Service for Consumer Rights and Human Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor) said.
Measurements for 2008 showed that 10 of the 14 stricken regions received yearly radiation doses that were a maximum of one-third of a millisievert and that the doses in two others, Tula and Oryol, were higher than one-third of a millisievert.
The village of Zaborye in the Bryansk region receives an annual dose of 9.4 millisieverts. On the whole, there are more than 300 towns and villages in Bryansk region and two in Kaluga region having annual doses of more than 1 millisievert.
Rospotrebnadzor also expressed serious concern over the quality of milk produced on private farms in Bryansk and Kaluga regions and edible wild fruit growing in the two regions.
Scientists forecast, however, that Russian cities, towns and villages with abnormally high radiation levels as a result of the Chornobyl accident will diminish by two-thirds in half a century.
A series of explosions in the Chornobyl nuclear power plant’s Generating Unit 4 at 1:23 a.m. on April 26 destroyed its reactor.
As a result, a large amount of radioactive substance was released into the environment and a radioactive cloud formed that flew over Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Britain and the eastern United States.
Radioactive nuclides polluted more than 145,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian territory in about 5,000 cities, town and villages.
