HONG KONG: Recent forest fires in Ukraine have caused increased concern for Europe as radioactive soil particles were scattered over the region through the air.
According to new Scientist reports that radioactive smoke distributed radiation particles over Eastern Europe and were found as far away as Italy and Scandinavia. The radioactive particles were released into the air in a series of three separate forest fires in Ukraine.
The forest fires released between two to eight percent of the caesium, some 0.5 PBq, of the radioactive particles in smoke, according to Nikolaos Evangeliou at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research and his colleagues. The group has been analysing the impact of forest fires on the nuclear disaster site and region. The results were somewhat startling as the researchers say their figures are likely “underestimates.”
Though the amount of radioactive caesium presented from the three fires is minimal, with an average dose for Kiev residents clocking in at just 10 microsieverts of radiation. The dose would be just one percent of the permitted yearly dose of the material. However, the researchers say the release of radioactive material is nothing to take lightly.
