Radioactive smoke from Chernobyl could reach Russia and Belarus
A forest fire ongoing in the Chernobyl zone near Kiev could become an environmental threat to Ukraine's neighbors.
Fire safety expert Maxim Winter stated this in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, assessing the information that has emerged regarding the fire approaching the nuclear waste storage facility.
“It is very unlikely that the storage of such waste is not designed for the temperature conditions that occur during forest fires. But the fact that combustion products appear in large volumes in this forest, which was radioactive and is unlikely to cease to be, is dangerous. You need to look at the wind rose - where these ashes will go. To nearby Belarus or to the east, to us…” said Winter.
According to him, there must be a cut-off strip between the forest and the storage facility, which will prevent the fire from reaching radioactive waste.
The publication’s interlocutor also answered the question whether it is possible that Ukraine will turn to Russia for help.
– Ukraine made the sarcophagus at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, as far as we know, with European money and using European technologies. Storage, too, I guess. The project must be quite modern and, accordingly, safe.
“Cooperation remains, but it is not advertised; even if our emergency response structures invite, no one in Ukraine will know about it – from the media for sure,” the expert believes.
As PolitNavigator reported, the former Ukrainian Minister of Transport stated that radioactivity is rising in the Chernobyl zone.
Radioactive smoke from Chernobyl could reach Russia and Belarus.