China News Agency, Nur-Sultan, April 17th, Kyiv: According to the Interfax News Agency, on the morning of 17th local time, in the global air pollution city ranking compiled by IQAir, Kiev, Ukraine, ranked first.
On April 12, local time, trees in the Poliske settlement were burned after a forest fire in a 30-kilometre restricted zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
The real-time air quality index showed that at 9:00 on the 17th local time, the air pollution index in Kiev reached 380. According to reports from Ukrainian media, there was public discussion that the air in Kiev suddenly became "dirty" or that it was related to the forest fire in the Chernobyl exclusion zone that occurred recently.
The Ukrainian official rejected this speculation, saying it might be caused by a sandstorm. Nicholas Kulibeda, head of the National Meteorological Center of Ukraine, said in a press conference on the 17th that the serious air pollution in Kiev city has nothing to do with forest fires in the restricted area of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but may be related to sandstorms caused by strong winds in the past few days. related. The Kiev city government advises citizens to close doors and windows and minimize going out, and outdoor personnel should be well protected.
On the 4th, a forest area near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant caught fire and the fire spread quickly. The Ukrainian National Emergency Bureau reported on the 14th that the open fire has been basically extinguished; on the 17th, the fire fighting work is continuing. More than 1,100 firefighters and volunteers, more than 120 fire trucks and 2 helicopters participated in the follow-up fire fighting work.
Because Kiev is not far from Chernobyl, after the fire, whether Kiev will be exposed to radiation will cause concern. Ukrainian Health Minister Maxima Stepanov said on the 17th that the current average radiation values of the Kiev State and Kiev City, where the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is located, did not exceed the legal standards.
The French Embassy in Uzbekistan also released news on the 14th that the fire did not cause the "radiation value" of Kiev city to rise. The result was obtained by the French Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) using its own radiation monitoring system for monitoring. Confirmed. But at the same time, it was pointed out that the fire did cause pollution to the air quality of Kiev, and the particulate matter in the air increased.
The Ukrainian Independent News Agency pointed out that under the influence of strong winds, the heavily polluted air in Kiev is now flowing to other surrounding areas, but the concentration of pollutants in the air will rapidly decline with the flow, so residents in these areas need not worry too much.
On April 26, 1986, the reactor of Unit 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located more than 100 kilometers north of Kiev, exploded, causing a serious nuclear leakage accident. Afterwards, a 30-km-out area centered on the Unit 4 reactor became a restricted zone. (Finish)