The State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate (SNRIU) with reference to the Center for Forecasting the Consequences of Radiation Accidents of the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center of the State Emergency Service warns of the possibility of further deterioration of the radiation situation in the Exclusion Zone due to forest fires, which cannot be extinguished due to the Russian occupation of the territory.
"The Center informs about the deterioration of the radiation situation in the Exclusion Zone and beyond it as a result of forest fires in the radioactively contaminated territories," the SNRIU said in a Facebook post on Monday.
At the same time, the inspection notes that according to the site The Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), areas of fire between 11 and 18 March 2022 were observed mainly in the western and central parts of the Exclusion Zone and on March 18 covered an area of over 8 square km, while on March 17 they were 5 square km, and on March 11 - almost 14 square km.
At the same time, the SIIA stressed that if the current situation continues in the near future, the radiation condition in the Exclusion Zone and beyond, including not only Ukraine, but also other states, can significantly worsen. Among the reasons for this, the regulator cited the lack of data on the current state of environmental radiation contamination in the Exclusion Zone, as there is no automated system for monitoring the radiation state, which in turn makes it impossible to respond adequately to threats of a deteriorating radiation situation.
At the same time, the regulator emphasizes that it is impossible to extinguish fires as a result of the occupation of the Exclusion Zone by Russian troops. In this connection, it is noted that forest fires, atypical for the Zone during the cold season, may reach their maximum possible limits during the spring-summer period, which, if no firefighting measures are taken, will result in almost complete burnout of the radioactively contaminated forests in the Exclusion Zone and, consequently, in considerable deterioration of the radiation situation in Ukraine and all of Europe.
As reported, a week earlier the State Agency of Ukraine for Management of Exclusion Zone (GAZO) warned about the growth of radiation danger as a result of fixed fires in the Chernobyl NPP zone, which tend to spread. According to its report, the areas of fires exceeded the permissible limits by tens of times, tending to spread and reaching up to 10 km² in some areas.
The exclusion zone, including the ChNPP site, was seized by Russian occupants on February 24.