Chernobyl (TEH) – Firefighters still have no control over the forest fires surrounding the damaged Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine more than a week after the outbreak announced. The zone administration assured that the limits for radioactive radiation in the neighboring populated areas were not exceeded, and the authorities did not provide information on the current extent of the fires.
On Saturday, they only referred to satellite images from last Sunday, according to which an area of ​​around 2400 hectares within the restricted area was on fire. The fires had broken out the day before. Environmentalists fear that radioactivity will be released. The smoke also moved to the capital, Kyiv, about 100 kilometers away at the weekend, and there had been multiple fires in the uninhabited areas around the nuclear ruins in recent years. Arson was always suspected as the cause. President Volodymyr Selenskyj criticized the careless handling of fire: “I want to address the citizens who do not care. We are talking about those who burn grass in the 21st century and thus cause terrible fires, “he said in a televised speech.
After the explosion of block four at the then Soviet nuclear power plant in Chernobyl in 1986, radioactive areas were blocked. Tens of thousands of people have been forcibly relocated. The area has been accessible for guided tourist tours for several years.
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