Ukrainian officials and firefighters could not carry out their usual functions in the area to extinguish the fires because of Russian control of the plant, the update added. It also warned that fires within “a 10-kilometer radius” [6.2 miles] of significant radioactive waste and contamination could pose a “particular danger.”
Forest fires have occurred before near the defunct power plant, the scene of a 1986 catastrophe. Large quantities of radioactive material contaminated the land around the Chernobyl plant after the disaster, and a nearby city was evacuated. Today, an “exclusion zone,” where radioactive contamination is highest, covers about 1,000 square miles around the plant.
Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-run nuclear company, said Monday that Russia’s seizure of the site meant crews were no longer able to monitor radiation levels there. It said the forest firefighting service was not able to work under Russian control.
“There is no data on the current state of radiation pollution of the exclusion zone’s environment, which makes it impossible to adequately respond to threats,” Energoatom said, according to Reuters. “Radiation levels in the exclusion zone and beyond, including not only Ukraine, but also other countries, could significantly worsen.”
Scientists say seasonal forest fires, which typically occur in spring and summer, can release radiation trapped in the upper layers of soil around the nuclear plant.
Research from the Center for Security Studies published last year found that the smoke from forest fires can carry radioactive material, presenting a “cause for international concern.”
“Such wildfires produce uncontainable, airborne, and hazardous smoke, which potentially carries radioactive material,” the research found. “Given the half-lives of certain radioisotopes, this problem will not disappear in the lifetimes of all living generations,” it added.
With the onset of climate change, “nuclear wildfires present a pressing yet little discussed problem” that requires urgent attention, the study said.
On Monday, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, said that a “long-delayed” rotation of technical staff at the Chernobyl plant has been completed, allowing staff to return home for the first time since Russian forces occupied the site last month.
The Chernobyl zone, one of the most radioactively contaminated places in the world, has remained closed since 1986, although a small number of people still live in the area — mostly elderly Ukrainians who refused to evacuate or who returned after the evacuation of the area.
The building containing the exploded reactor from 1986 was covered in 2017 with an enormous shield meant to contain radiation still emanating from the plant. Robots inside the plant work to dismantle the destroyed reactor and gather up radioactive waste. It is expected to take until 2064 to finish safely dismantling the reactors.
The IAEA has repeated multiple offers to both sides for its director general and a technical team to travel to Chernobyl and other sites in Ukraine to help protect nuclear facilities amid the conflict.
