On April 26, 1986, due to human error, the reactor number four of the nuclear plant of Chernobyl melted to everyone’s amazement, releasing into the sky and into the environment large quantities of particles and gas radioactive. In all 400 times more than radioactivity than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Since then, the site, located in northern Ukraine, has been surrounded by a 2,600 square kilometer exclusion zone with no access. Put in place to contain radioactive contaminants, it also protects the area from human disturbance.
With the exception of a handful of industrial sectors, most of the area is completely isolated from all human activity and looks almost…normal. In places where radiation levels have dropped sufficiently over time, plants and animals returned in significant numbers.
So much so that some scientists have suggested that the exclusion zone had become a kind of Eden for the wildlife… Others are more skeptical of this interpretation. Appearances can be deceiving. In areas of high radioactivity, the size and diversity of bird populations, mammals and D’insects are thus significantly lower than in those considered to be “cleaner”.
Also, in recent days, I have been asked on several occasions what interest the Russian forces had in entering through northern Ukraine through this atomic wasteland, and what the environmental consequences of military activity in this zone.
Why go through Chernobyl?
In retrospect, the strategic advantages of basing military operations in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone seem obvious. It is a vast, unpopulated region connected by a highway directly to the Ukrainian capital, with few obstacles or human developments along the way.
The Chernobyl area also borders Belarus and is therefore safe from attack by Ukrainian forces from the north. The industrial zone of the reactor site is, in fact, a large parking lot where the thousands of vehicles of an invading army can be parked.
The site also houses the main network of switching from electrical network of the region. It is possible to turn off the lights of Kyiv from this location, although the plant itself has not produced electricity since 2000 – when the last of its four reactors was shut down.
This power supply control is undoubtedly of strategic importance, even though Kyiv’s electricity needs could probably be met by other knots from electrical network Ukrainian national.
In addition, the plant is likely to provide protection from air attacks since it is unlikely that Ukrainian (or other) forces would risk fighting on a site containing more than 2.4 million kilograms of combustible nuclear waste radioactive…
We are talking here about materials highly radioactive substances produced by a nuclear reactor during normal operation. A direct impact on the pools where they are kept or on the plant’s dry drum storage facilities could release far more radioactive material into the environment than the merger and the initial explosions of 1986. We would then witness a global environmental catastrophe.
(On March 8, the IAEA indicated that “the remote transmission of data warranty control systems installed at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant had been cut off”. Since March 9, the electricity has been cut, but for the time being this does not pose a security issue according to the IAEA, editor’s note)
Environmental risk
Despite the clean-up work, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone remains one of the most radioactively contaminated areas on the planet. On thousands of hectares surrounding the reactor site, debits ambient radiation dose exceeds by several thousand times the normal background levels. In some parts of the “Red Forest” located around the plant, it is possible to receive a dangerous radiation dose in just a few days of exposure.
Radiation monitoring stations set up throughout the area recorded the first obvious environmental impact of the invasion. The sensors set up by the Ukrainian EcoCentre in Chernobyl in the event ofaccident orForest fire revealed a dramatic increase in radiation levels along major roads and near reactors after 9 p.m. on February 24, 2022.
That’s when the Russian invaders arrived, from neighboring Belarus.
As the increase in radiation levels was more evident near the reactor buildings, it was feared that the containment structures had been damaged, although Russian authorities have denied this possibility.
Data from the automated radiation monitoring system of the exclusion zone, which is available online, indicate that the control levels of gamma radiation dose rate (red dots) have been exceeded at a significant number of observation points. pic.twitter.com/G4WEGgkMcT
— Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine – Ukrainian Parliament (@ua_parliament) February 25, 2022
Then, the sensor network suddenly stopped reporting at the beginning of February 25 and did not restart until the 1er March. This means that the total magnitude of disturbance caused by movements of troops is unclear.
If it was dust kicked up by vehicles and not damage to containment facilities that caused the increase in radiationand assuming that this increase lasted only a few hours, it is unlikely to be of long-term concern. In fact, the disturbed dust should settle again once the troops are gone. That doesn’t mean it’s inconsequential.
Indeed, the Russian soldiers, as well as the workers of the Ukrainian plant who were taken hostage, undoubtedly inhaled some of the raised particles. Researchers know that the Earth of the Chernobyl exclusion zone may contain radionuclidesin particular from cesium 137, from strontium 90, several isotopes of plutoniumof the’uranium as well asamericium 241.
Even at very low levels, they are all toxic, carcinogenic or both if inhaled.
Possible health impacts
Perhaps the greatest threat to the region comes from the potential release into the atmosphere of radionuclides that have been trapped for thirty years in the soil and plants in the event of fire of forest.
Such fires have recently increased in frequency, size and intensity, likely due to the climate change. And we know that they released radioactive material in theair and the widely dispersed.
Radioactive fallout from forest fires could thus represent the greatest threat to the Chernobyl site for the human populations downwind of the region, as well as for the fauna and flora of the exclusion zone.
Currently, the area is home to lots of dead trees and debris that could be used as fuel. Even in the absence of combat, the simple military presence – with these thousands of soldiers transiting, eating, smoking and making campfires to keep warm – increases the risk of fire.
It is difficult to predict the effects of radioactive fallout on people, but consequences on flora and fauna are well documented.
Chronic exposure to even relatively low doses has been associated with numerous effects in wildlife: mutations genetictumors, cataracts eyes, infertility and neurological impairments. Population size and biodiversity are also affected in heavily contaminated areas and are experiencing notable declines.
When we talk about ionizing radiation,irradiation, there is no “safe” level. And the risks to life are directly proportional to the exposure level.
If the ongoing conflict were to escalate and damage radiation containment facilities at Chernobyl, or any of the 15 nuclear reactors at four other sites in Ukraine, the scale of environmental damage would be catastrophic.