MINSK, Belarus – A group of U.S. radiation experts will visit the Belarusian capital to ensure that fires in the vicinity of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant haven't spread radiated debris from the world's worst nuclear accident, officials said Friday.
The experts will arrive in Minsk on Monday to monitor radiation levels and make sure they aren't harmful for the health of U.S. Embassy staff, an embassy spokesman said. No increase in radiation has been reported so far in Minsk, and no U.S. Embassy staffers have been evacuated.
Recent rumors of forest fires within the 30-kilometer (18-mile) closed zone around the Chernobyl plant sparked fears that the blazes were kicking up debris of the radioactive fallout from the April 1986 nuclear explosion. The plant is in Ukraine, but the isolation zone also covers part of southeastern Belarus.
Officials insist there have been no fires within the zone, but firefighters are battling 16 small peat bog fires in Belarus within 60 kilometers (35 miles) of the plant.
'The situation is under control. Radiation levels are normal,' said Kirill Danilov, a spokesman for Belarus' Emergency Ministry.
Belarusian emergency officials said the number of fires in the region was lower than in previous years.
Ukrainian officials also extinguished forest fires between the capital Kiev and the Chernobyl plant on Wednesday, but said no increase in radiation was reported. Kiev is 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Chernobyl.
Concern about the possible spread of radiation prompted Israeli embassy in Minsk to evacuate its personnel Thursday for medical checkups.
'Doctors at the Foreign Ministry decided that it's best to bring them home,' Israeli Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Amira Dotan said. But she added that there was no serious fear that diplomats' health had been harmed.
Officials at the Chernobyl plant said that its only working reactor No. 3 was functioning normally following a malfunction in a turbo generator that forced the plant to halve output Monday. Chernobyl, like all of Ukraine's Soviet-era nuclear reactors, sees occasional such malfunctions.
