Recently in Chernobyl Category

By now, I'm sure most of you have heard about the wildfires that are currently raging across Russia. More than 800 wildfires have been reported across the country, which is suffering from its worst heat wave since recod-keeping began over 130 years ago. Russia's Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoygu has warned that some of these wildfires in western regions could release radioactive nuclides from land previously contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Special laboratories are monitoring the potential release of radioactive contaminants in Russia's Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine. This area was contaminated with Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 by fallout from the Chernobyl accident. Radioactive substances from Chernobyl still remain in the upper layer of soil in the forests of Bryansk, Lipetsk, Kaluga and Tula.

The Russian wildfires have the potential to raise some of the radioactive fallout from the ground and release it into the air. More intensive fire protection work is now underway in the Chernobyl-affected areas of Russia.

Approximately 425 wildfires have also been reported throughout Ukraine. It is not clear if any are located within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Image: Акутагава (Creative Commons)

Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in the aftermath of the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The following information includes legal orders for the evacuations and the official Soviet counts of the number of people that were evacuated:

• Pripyat and the nearby village Yanov: Organized evacuation of Pripyat (49,360) and the railway station Yanov (254) from 2:00 - 5:00 PM on April 27, 1986, in accordance with a decision by the Government Commission of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
• On May 3, 1986 from 9:00 AM - 9:00 PM, in accordance with order № -09 dated May 2, 1986 from the Chief of Civil Defense and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Kiev, organized evacuations from the 10- and 30-kilometer zone around the Chernobyl Plant of 7,392 people from 15 settlements.
• On May 3, 4 and 7, 1986, another 44 settlements from the 30-kilometer zone around the Chernobyl Plant and some areas near it.
• From May 14 to August 16, 1986, in accordance with decision № -70 from the Speical Group of the Communist Party of Ukraine and decrees № -40 / 1, 49 and 64 from the head of Civil Defense and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Kiev, another 15 locations were evacuated (8 from the Kiev region and 7 from the Zhitomir region).
• Through mid-August 1986, 90,784 people from 81 settlements in Ukraine were evacuated. During the same period, another 25,000 people were evacuated from 107 settlements in Belarus.
• On June 28, 1989, the USSR Council of Ministers, after further testing of the contaminated areas, issued order №-244-C containing procedures and conditions for the relocation of additional settlements in the Zhitomir and Kiev regions due to soil contamination in excess of permissible limits. This set in motion a period of relocation for residents of the zone of unconditional (mandatory) resettlement.
  • The first stage of this order's implementation was resolution № -333 from the USSR Council of Ministers, dated December 30, 1989 that provided for the resettlement of approximately 3,200 residents from 12 settlements in the Narodichi area and 4 settlements in the Polesie area.

As a result of the 1986 nuclear accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, approximately 24,700 people were evacuated from a 1,700 sq. km. area in Belarus. At the same time, the land in this area was withdrawn from economic use. In 1988, the Soviet government created the Polesie State Radiation Ecological Reserve (PSRER) was created on most of that land. In 1993, land of an adjacent resettlement area was added to the reserve, increasing its size to 2,154 sq. km.

The purpose of the reserve is to prevent the spread of radionuclides to less contaminated territories, study the effects of radiation on plants, conduct radiation-ecological monitoring and perform research.

In the abandoned village of Masan, within the PSRER borders, is a radiation research monitoring station. The facility is situated approximately 12 km. from the Chernobyl Plant in what used to be an abandoned house on an old farm that previously had 40 cm. of radiation-saturated soil removed.

Two scientists typically live at the station for 12-14 days per month.  The house has a working and living room, kitchen, bathroom and storage for batteries that are charged by solar panels.  Of course, fresh drinking water is brought to the station from outside the reserve.

From the top of a 20-meter high observation tower, scientists can see the Chernobyl Plant, high-rise buildings in Pripyat and beautiful panoramas of the Polesie landscape.

In Belarus, the Chernobyl Zone consists of two areas:

• Zone of Alienation: limited human activity, with forests planted to help prevent the transfer of radionuclides from dust
• Exclusion Zone: humans are not allowed to live here due to high levels of radiation

Below is a new video showing the Reactor 3 and 4 control rooms at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. My friend Sergei, who is the director of Solo East Travel in Kyiv and his guide Yuri were the last people to visit the Reactor 4 control room. Workers have finished building a brick wall that now blocks the control room's entrance, effectively entombing the site.

I always felt very lucky to have had the opportunity to visit the Reactor 4 control room in June 2006, but even more so now. I guess this means I definitely won't be able to see it again in October when I return to Chernobyl.

Here is the video:

On this, the 24th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, it is once again time to remember and honor:

• The nuclear accident that occurred at the V.I. Lenin Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant during the early morning hours of April 26, 1986
• The firefighters who both risked and gave their lives responding to the first calls about explosions and fires at the Chernobyl Plant
• The hundreds of thousands of liquidators who also risked their lives during the clean up operations and Sarcophagus construction following the accident
• The residents of Pripyat, who were unnecessarily put at risk by the Soviet government, which failed to evacuate the city until 36 hours after the accident
• The thousands of people, including liquidators and former Pripyat and Exclusion Zone residents, who continue to suffer adverse health effects due to radiation exposure and contamination from the accident
• The residents of neighboring towns and villages who were also evacuated from their family homes after the accident
• The roughly 250 elderly samosels who moved back to their homes within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and continue living there today

The 24th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster is less than two weeks away and there is not much new to report regarding activities within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Therefore, I figured this would be a good time to re-post some reviews I wrote several years ago about some Chernobyl documentary films. Either click on the links below or go to the Articles section of this website to read the full reviews

The first documentary film is Pripyat. This 1999 black and white film by Nicklaus Geyrhalter takes a look at life in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The film not only discusses Pripyat, but also the lives of workers at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and how samosels survive in the Zone. The film also takes a close look at one of the Zone's contaminated vehicle graveyards.

Next is Julio Soto's 2005 documentary, Radiophobia. This color film examines the devastation caused by the 1986 Chernobyl accident. The main location is the city of Pripyat, though it also briefly touches on the samosels. My friends and former Pripyat residents Lyubov Sirota and her son Sasha appear in this film.

Last, but certainly not least, is Heavy Water: A Film for Chernobyl. Directed by David Bickerstaff and Phil Grabsky, the moving film is based on Mario Petrucci's book-length poem, "Heavy Water: A Poem for Chernobyl." This film is quite different, substituting Petrucci's poetry in place of facts and general narration. Heavy Water places more focus on the samosels, though it also looks at Pripyat and some abandoned villages.

My friend Michael Forster Rothbart has a new photo project titled "Chernobyl Today" that is featured in the latest issue of zReportage, an online investigative photojournalism magazine.

You may recognize some of the images from Rothbart's After Chernobyl project, but Chernobyl Today has 20 new photos in the slideshow. If you are interested in purchasing copies of Rothbart's Chernobyl photos, they are now available through Zuma Press.

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant administration has announced that, within the framework of the licensing plans for the decommissioning of the facility, all previously unused nuclear fuel has now been removed from the site. The last 68 fuel assemblies were removed on March 5 and exported to Russia per a previously signed agreement.

Assemblies of spent nuclear fuel are still being housed at the Chernobyl Plant. However, the process of unloading used fuel from Reactor 3's holding pool is proceeding ahead of schedule.

In other Chernobyl-related news, meetings are being held to insure the quick and quality implementation of both the ISF-2 spent fuel processing facility and construction of the New Safe Confinement structure.

Photo courtesy of ChAES

According to Igor Gramotkin, Director-General of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, facility administration hopes completion of the facility's New Safe Confinement structure will occur in 2013. Design delays have pushed back the structure's expected completion date.

Both the state of Ukraine and the Chernobyl Plant administration are looking for the most reliable equipment to avoid future operational risks for the NSC, which is being designed to be functional for at least 100 years. Thus, the Chernobyl Plant administration is not prepared to necessarily accept the cheapest system available.

The cost of the NSC object is currently estimated at 1.6 billion euros, over twice the original estimate of 758 million euros. Gramotkin did not rule out the possibility that the final construction cost will be higher.

The stabilization of the existing Sarcophagus was completed in 2009. This stabilization effort has increased the safe operation of the aging structure for at least 15 years.

The NSC will have the following characteristics:

• Height: 108 meters
• Width: 257 meters
• Length: 150 meters

While the New Safe Confinement project has been delayed, at least it's nice to know they're not "cheaping out" on systems and materials. If building the best and safest possible confinement structure requires a longer period of time, that's fine with me. At least the existing Sarcophagus has been stabilized, minimizing the threat of collapse.

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant administration has uploaded a new video to their website. The Russian-language, 31-minute video has some interesting clips of the clean up efforts and the construction of the original Sarcophagus. It's definitely worth a look.