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News of this catastrophe is being silenced by the world media. RT seems to be the only news outlet reporting on this.
Chernobyl
fire: Kiev claims no radiation threat, experts ring alarm bells
RT,
1
May, 2015
Ukraine’s
emergency services battling the wildfire in Chernobyl have claimed
almost complete victory, but people are extremely wary. Moreover, a
much more serious potential disaster could be in the making: the
spread of radioactive fumes.
“Firefighters
are liquidating the last of the hotbeds,” a statement said
as of 9:00 am on Friday, adding that some work remains at three
separate smoldering spots. A radiological lab is on site performing
tests. A check is reportedly carried out automatically every three
hours by 39 automated testing posts, the statement from the State
Emergency Service of Ukraine also reads.
Most
of the 400-hectare forest had been engulfed by the flames. The
closest point to the abandoned Chernobyl reactor is only about 20km
(about 12.5 miles), inside the exclusion zone, abandoned and cordoned
off almost 30 years ago, when the worst disaster of its kind struck.
It started on Tuesday and triggered an emergency alert, with police
and the National Guard mobilized to bring the flames under control.
“No
increase in radioactivity has been registered”in
the area outside the factory complex ‘Chernobylskaya Pushcha’,
the statement adds, issuing non-alarming radiation readings from
other areas including Kiev.
But
not everyone’s doubts have been dispelled. Greenpeace and a host of
experts in the field are ringing alarm bells: “The
amount of radioactivity potentially released from wildfires could be
the equivalent of a major nuclear accident,” it
told Govorit Moskva radio shortly after the situation became started.
The potential danger in this fire comes from the radioactive
contaminants the burning plants have absorbed, ecologist Christopher
Busby told RT.
“Some
of the materials that were contaminating that area would have been
incorporated into the woods. In other words, they land on the ground
in 1986 and they get absorbed into the trees and all the biosphere.
And when it burns, they just become re-suspended. It's like Chernobyl
all over again."Busby
is the scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Riss.
Numerous
other experts in the field share these concerns. Randall Thompson
warns: “If
it rains on that cloud of smoke… once it gets inside you in any way
– nose, mouth, hands, through your orifices – then you are being
radiated.” Thompson
participated in the cleanup of the 1979 Three Mile Island Incident in
Pennsylvania – a partial nuclear meltdown at a nuclear reactor, the
worst such accident in US power plant history.
Kevin Kamps of Beyondnuclear.org warns that “Cesium-137 is hazardous for 300-600 years, so these forests and grass that absorb Cesium-137 will remain a hazard for centuries to come in this circumstance, with wildfires redistributing the hazard.”
While
Kiev also pronounces itself safe from harm, alternate views are being
voiced: “There
are winds carrying the smoke north, towards Kiev,” Noam
Segal with the Israel Energy Forum says. So “there’s
a certain danger for people living in the area.”
The
Ukrainian government has been going back and forth with statements.
Official updates were posted online by the Interior Minister and
later the prime minister.
Despite
the clear alarm being voiced by Avakov and Yatsenyuk, the latter was
heard backtracking on this view in the same statement:
“First
of all, I’d like to calm everyone down. Everything is under
control, the fire is 23km away from the plant. Our emergencies
ministry is working at its best to prevent the spread of the
blaze,” the
PM told journalists on Tuesday evening.
But
local residents, who endured the panic before the 1986 catastrophe at
the Chernobyl plant, have their doubts.
One
resident, Olga, tells RT that if smoke is in the air and in close
proximity to the reactor, there’s no doubt people are breathing in
radioactive waste.
“The
authorities won’t tell us anything. They will simply keep us in the
dark, even if something happens. We’ll only find out in time…
their only concern is avoiding panic,”she
says. “I
think it’s very dangerous.”
“When
we had the catastrophe [in 1986], we were in the city. They were
saying that radiation was low back then as well, when in fact it was
way off the scale… So, we’re not the type of people to believe
this.”
RT
#Chernobyl exclusion zone in flames: Strongest blaze in 23 years http://on.rt.com/4gj5tm VIDEO https://youtu.be/vOdlNrHPcFk
Nearly
30 years ago, an explosion and fire in Chernobyl's Reactor 4 caused a
release of radioactive particles into the air, which contaminated the
surrounding area and caused an increase in radiation levels in
Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and across Europe. It was the worst ever
nuclear disaster in terms of casualties and clean-up costs. The
crippled reactor itself was sealed under a sarcophagus of reinforced
concrete.
But
in the initial hours of that crisis, authorities moved to reassure
the nation.
Pyotr
Popov, one of the liquidators working at the scene at the time told
RT the protective gear used was simply inadequate. “No
matter how much you washed it, the radiation remained. Conditions
were hard. We all got a strong dose in the end.”
Popov
was one of 800,000 people who risked their lives so that others could
live. Of the above number, 25,000 were lost.
HAZMAT
in Ukraine on Thursday, 30 April, 2015 at 08:36 (08:36 AM) UTC.
Radioactive
ashes and dust caused by the forest fire in exclusion zone of
Chernobyl nuclear power plant is expected to fall today in Kiev -
during the previous days of the fire the radioactive precipitation
fell in Belarus. Today, the wind will change and precipitation
will fall on Kiev, whose residents will feel cinder of the fire
already by dinner. The ashes of burning trees and dust the wind
raises is considered hazardous. In this regard, the radiation
level in Kiev will be measured every half hour. It has not
exceeded the natural values yet. "Speech is now about
isotopes of caesium. The ash itself can accumulate and concentrate
these isotopes. If the wind changes direction, the radiation level
can grow few-fold," said Dmitry Bazyka, the director of the
Ukrainian Institute of Radiology. The fire in the "Chernobyl
forest" can harm to grain crop - in case radioactive fallout
on crop fields, there is a high threat of contamination of the
soil within a radius of 120 km away from the seat of fire. Back in
2013 Russian television commentator Dmitry Kiselyov (Kiever by
birth) promised that in the event of a victory of the Ukrainian
Maidan ("the revolution of dignity", as it is referred
by its participants) the layer of nuclear ashes in Europe.
|
As the world media keeps silent about this catatrophe, quoting the "Kiev authorities", this is what we are getting as "news" from Chernobyl.
Welcome to our Brave New Orwellian World!
Massive fire ‘dangerously close’ to Chernobyl plant: Just 3 miles from nuclear waste
— Official: “Risks are high”
— Evacuations underway
— Experts: “Smoke is heavily contaminated… could see dispersion of very significant component of original radiation”; “Capable of spreading great distances” (VIDEO)
ENE News,
29 April, 2015
Reuters (emphasis added): Forest fire threatens Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear zone… Earlier, the interior ministry had warned that high winds were blowing the fire in northern Ukraine towards Chernobyl… international experts warned that a large amount of dangerous isotopes remained in the forests near Chernobyl, which could be spread by forest fires.
Interfax: Arson
attack could be behind massive wildfire around Chornobyl…
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov… said that the forecast
was positive. “But! It’s too important and risks
are high…
Therefore – maximum attention… There shouldn’t be any ground
for fear and panic at the moment. Everything is under control.”
Bloomberg:
Avakov said… “It got to 20 kilometers of the reactor and five
kilometers from buried nuclear waste.”
FOCUS
News Agency:
The fire near Chernobyl NPP brought under control somefive
kilometres from the places of burial of radioactive waste,
UNIAN reported…
ITV: Ukraine’s
largest forest fire for 23 years is spreading
rapidly –
and travellingtowards the
abandoned Chernobylnuclear
power plant…
Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk insisted that “the situation is
under control… serious
forces… are
being used to prevent fires from spreading.”
Interfax: Police
evacuating people over
fire not far from Chernobyl NPP —
“At 1830 (1530 GMT) the situation with the forest fire around the
Chernobyl plant escalated”. The National Guard and the Interior
Ministry’s troops
were also put on alert in
case the fire worsened… The fire is described as the largest
of its kind to hit Ukraine in more than two decades.
WSJ:
Ukrainian emergency services have stopped the advance of a forest
fire which was getting dangerously
close to
the remains of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, officials said…
AP:
Ukrainian officials warned Tuesday evening that the situation could
be complicated by the strong winds blowing
the fire in the direction of the plant…“Patrols
have been stepped up. National Guard and Interior Ministry units have
been placed on high
alert,”
[Avakov] said…
RT:
Smoke from burning forests in the Chernobyl exclusion zone is capable
of spreading contaminants across great distances, even after the fire
has been stopped, ecology experts told RT… New
hot spots were discovered [Wednesday],
but they are outside the exclusion zone… [C]ontaminants could still
be released and travel far and wide, borne aloft by the smoke,
nuclear safety expert John H. Large told RT: “… fires
were the greatest concern in terms of the means by which you can
disperse a secondary radiological impact“…
high temperatures and volumes of smoke produced in a forest fire can
take contaminants hundreds of kilometers away… “Radiation really
doesn’t respect any international boundaries.”
Dr.
Timothy Mousseau, Univ. of South Carolina:
“The smoke
is heading directly towards Minsk,
Belarus… Clearly
you would not want to be downwind in the main plume… this smoke is
heavily contaminated…
The simulations that our group undertook last year indicated
that previous
forest fires in
the area had re-released, re-dispersed
about eight percent of the radiation from the original catastrophe.
Certainly the fire
that we’re seeing today seems to be on a much larger scale.
So we
could see a re-dispersion of a very significant component of the
original radiation.”
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