As firefighters continue to battle forest fires that have raged for nearly a week in the Chornobyl exclusion zone, scientists say that the smoke pluming toward Kyiv from the former nuclear plant site does not contain a hazardous concentration of radioactive Caesium-137.
At least 3,000 hectares of forests and brush have burnt in the exclusion zone as a result of people burning grass, a common practice in rural Ukraine, and extremely dry weather.
The radioactive cloud will reportedly reach Kyiv and parts of Kyiv Oblast adjacent to the exclusion zone on April 10-11. But it does not pose any risk to public health since the concentration of Caesium-137 is very low, Ukraine’s State Nuclear and Radiation Safety Center said in a statement on April 10.
Background radiation levels remain within the normal range in Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast, scientists say. However, a spike in radiation has been registered in the exclusion zone.
Forests within the 30-kilometer Chornobyl exclusion zone, closed since the 1986 nuclear plant explosion, have been on fire since April 4.
The State Emergency Service says 3,000 hectares have burnt, and fires continue on 35 hectares.
In Ukraine, most fires are man-made, caused by mishandling fire or burning dry grass, leaves or garbage to clear fields before sowing crops. However, this year the number of fires and their coverage has increased by 30% due to the dry climate, the emergency service said.
The year 2019 was the warmest on record in Ukraine. An abnormally snowless winter followed by a dry spring intensified the fire risk. Since the beginning of 2020, the emergency service has registered 16,634 wildfires, which destroyed some 19,200 hectares of territory.
The State Emergency Service issued a high fire risk warning for the upcoming weekend of April 12-13 in Kyiv, Kyiv Oblast, Chornobyl and Zhytomyr Oblast.
The fire originally spread to the exclusion zone from Zhytomyr Oblast, where 800 hectares of forests were on fire as of April 8. Zhytomyr police are investigating what they think was an act of arson: Someone intentionally set dry grass on fire.
Simultaneously, another fire broke out after a man in Rahivka village, located 70 kilometers away from Chornobyl, set grass on fire, and winds fanned the flames and spread them to the nearby Kotovsky forest in the exclusion zone. Police arrested the man and charged him with arson.
On April 8, a new fire broke out near Chistogalovka, a former village within the 10-kilometer zone from the nuclear plant.
It has reportedly reached the town of Chornobyl, according to Yaroslav Yemelianenko, director of the Chernobyl Tour company and a member of the public council of the State Agency for the Management of the Exclusion Zone.
Officials have called on citizens to stop burning grass and garbage and suggested raising the fine for doing it. Currently, it stands at Hr 175 ($6).
