Thursday, August 12, 2010
Chernobyl 1986
Like the old Soviet government did in downplaying the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident, Russian officials are publicly minimizing the risk posed by wildfires in the same region that is still contaminated by radiation. Of particular concern are three heavily irradiated sites in the Bryansk region of Western Russia, near Belarus and Ukraine, where trees and grass remain contaminated.
Concerns raised so far have come primarily from non-governmental sources, such as Greenpeace’s office in Russia, and not from government officials. In fact, Dr. Gennadi Onishchenko, Russia’s chief sanitary doctor, told the public: “There is no need to sow panic. Everything is fine.”
On the other hand, Russia’s emergency minister, Sergei Shoigu, warned on television that nuclear contaminants could be released into the atmosphere. And the government is taking action to stop the spread of the fires in the contaminated region by dispatching firefighters. Some radiation experts say the threat to the general public is negligible, but that the firefighters are at risk.
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
Russian Fires Raise Fears of Radioactivity (by Michael Schwirtz, New York Times)
Russian Fires Hit Land Contaminated by Chernobyl Disaster (Agence France-Presse)
Chernobyl, Fires and Radiation (by Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times)
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