MINSK – The fires in Ukraine’s Chornobyl exclusion zone pose no threat to the population of Belarus from a radiological point of view, Sergei Shparlo, head of the department for dealing with the aftermath of the Chornobyl Nuclear Plant disaster of Belarus’s Emergency Situations Ministry, told a press conference in Minsk on April 22.
“We can clearly say here: be calm, the fires in the Ukrainian Chornobyl exclusion zone do not pose any threat to the health of the people of Belarus from a radiological viewpoint,” Shparlo said.
The density of radiation contamination has not increased where the fires are, he said. “The same number of radionuclides remains,” Shparlo said. “Secondly, to put it simply, radionuclides on the affected territories are distributed in small quantities over a large area; some of them have gone deep into the ground. Therefore, a small number of radionuclides is being released from the burning contaminated areas, and most of them immediately fall down with the products of combustion,” he said.
“The number of radionuclides carried on the air as a result of the fires fits in the statistical margin of error as regards its influence,” Shparlo said.
The Emergency Situations Ministry has intensified radiation control at the scientific station Masany, located on the Ukrainian border, in connection with the fires in the Ukrainian exclusion zone, he said.
