Forest Fires Threaten Former Chernobyle PLTN Area

Reaktor Chernobyl (Photo Taken by Jason Minshull/wikimediacommons)

JAKARTA - Forest fires have continued to burn in recent days and devour thousands of hectares of land in Ukraine. Now the Rooster is no more than a few kilometers from the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

As reported by the BBC, one of the tour operators Yaroslav Emelianenko said the fire had reached the city of Pripyat. The city is a silent witness to the leak of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor which exploded in 1986.

"The flames were only less than 2 km from the Chernobyl nuclear waste storage site," said Emilianenko.

Firefighters battle massive flames near disused #Chernobyl nuclear plant. Authorities insist the fire poses no risk to the public, though the state ecological inspector claims radiation readings are now 16 times higher than normal within the bushfire areahttps: //t.co/TJ2nOk3Ghe pic.twitter.com/QUAm5GImOA

- RT (@RT_com) April 13, 2020

In addition to environmental damage, according to Emelianenko, if the fire completely scorched the area around Pripyat City, it would be a disaster for the economic sector. The reason is, tours and tourist visits to Pripyat are a source of state revenue.

In 2018 for example, more than 70,000 people visited Pripyat City. In 2019 the number of tourist arrivals jumped up, along with the success of the HBO mini series which tells the story of the Chernobyl disaster.

The Russian branch of environmental group Greenpeace estimates that the plumes of smoke and embers are expected to spread faster and burn thousands of hectares of land around Chernobyl. This condition is worse than the land fires that had occurred at one of the nuclear reactor locations several years earlier.

Starting from burning grass

According to local police, the fire has been burning in the forest since April 4. The cause is the result of one of the men burning dry grass near the exclusion zone or The Zone, which is an area 30 km from the Chernobyl nuclear plant.

After the fire spread wide enough, more than 300 firefighters were deployed to the location. The officers were assisted by six helicopters and planes that tried to extinguish the fire from above.

Wildfires near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant burning since April 3 have already become the largest for the entire existence of this exclusion zone. These fires are extremely dangerous because radionuclides located in the upper soil layers might be released into the air. pic.twitter.com/QyDkeq6PGY

- Greenpeace Russia (@greenpeaceru) April 13, 2020

The Head of Management of the Exclusion Zone (The Zone) Kateryna Pavlova said his party had been working hard to extinguish the fire. "We've been working all night, digging trenches of fire breaks around the factory to prevent it from getting close to the power plant."

On the other hand, the Acting Chief of the Ecological Inspection Service of Ukraine Yegor Firsov, said that radiation levels in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone have surged above normal. Through his Facebook social media account, Yegor suspects that radiation levels will rise during the land fires.

The Ukrainian government then denied and corrected Firsov's statement and confirmed that the radiation level in the Chernobyl area was still within normal limits.

As is known, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded in 1986. The area around Chernobyle, including the City of Pripyat had to be evacuated by its inhabitants. Until now, Chernobyl still continues to produce energy, even though all four reactors were closed in 2000.