Chernobyl's fatal slumber could be hiding a dangerous outcome: the trees in the exclusion zone absorb radiation through the air and soil, causing the tree limbs and leaves to be radioactive.
This is itself is not a problem if the forests are left undisturbed, as they will be for centuries to come, but if there is a forest fire the radiation that is trapped in the lymph and the wood will be dispersed in the atmosphere again and again via the smoke and the ash.
Luckily, something is being done to prevent such fires. People patrol the forests in the exclusion zone, clearing brush and dead trees in the 1000 miles square area. There are people that are suspended in the air in rickety observation towers during the hot months, who alert authorities at the first sign of smoke. When the fire is identified someone runs with a water truck to stop the blaze.
The forests in the exclusion zone have been absorbing radiation since that fatal day when the core melted at the Chernobyl plant. If the forests burn, the strontium 90, cesium 137, and plutonium 238, could again be dispersed by clouds that trap the radiation tainted smoke and ash and transport it, much as it did 30 years ago, across continents.
So the effort is not just for the Russians, but for their neighbors too.
Because the forests in the exclusion zones have pretty much returned to a wild state, they have started to exhibit overcrowding, especially in the pine forest clusters, whose oily sap makes them a prime candidate for forest fires.
Climate change is contributing too. Harsher summers and drought are contributing to raise the fire risk each year, so that it is more a matter of when, instead of if, a large fire will consume the Chernobyl forests.
What is more troubling is that the 'firefighters' who are valiantly trying to prevent the fires, are woefully unequipped for the 'big one', a raging fire that could tear through the overgrown tangle that is the hundreds of mile-wide exclusion zone forest. They are not even equipped with protective gear to minimize their exposure to breathing in the smoke and ash.
The United Nations is trying to address the problem by setting aside a 20 million dollar sustainable development project to address the risk of wildfire in the exclusion zone, much to the relief of Russian workers in the area. One of the first things, the fire managers say they will do, is cut the 'crown' of trees that obstructs the remaning roads, which will enable them to reach fires deeper into the forest.
Fire detection equipment will also become available. The fire fighters are already planning for the most important aspect of fire prevention: thinning the overgrowth as soon as possible.
Source: Scientific American / 6.27.13
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