Ukraine: Chernobyl fire, radiation rate skyrockets

Text by: Sébastien Gobert

In the midst of a period of strict containment to fight the epidemic of coronavirus, Ukraine is fighting against hundreds of meadow and forest fires. The largest have already ravaged a hundred hectares of the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl power plant.

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From our correspondent in Kiev ,

The radiation level is 16 times higher than the norm because of the fire that ravaged the Chernobyl exclusion zone . The Ukrainian emergency service, however, ensures that this increase is limited to the heart of the home and does not pose any particular problem of contamination.

More than 100 firefighters, 2 planes and 1 helicopter are mobilized 24 hours a day to put out the fire. There is nothing exceptional about the situation, either in Chernobyl or elsewhere in Ukraine. Each spring, individuals burn garbage, fallen leaves and cut grass in their gardens. Fires get bigger with the wind and can get out of hand.

Over the past 48 hours, there have been 800 grassland, steppe and forest fires across the country, including 140 around Kiev. Several areas of the capital are experiencing excessive air pollution.

This is a real source of concern, even if, this year, millions of people are less exposed because of the strict containment measures imposed from Monday, April 6.

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• Ukraine
• Nuclear