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Expert on BBC: Like setting off a nuclear bomb in Eastern Europe? Fire fears for dying radioactive tree plantations around Chernobyl

Published: July 20th, 2012 at 11:42 am ET
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Title: Chernobyl’s radioactive trees and the forest fire risk
Source: BBC News
Author: Patrick Evans
Date:  6 July 2012 at 20:30 ET

[...]

Chernobyl Forestry Enterprise is now planting small new pine stands which it plans to harvest in 80 years’ time. But there are serious problems with the rest of Chernobyl’s extensive pine plantations.

Pine damages easily. Wind blows it down. Insects infest it. Drought makes brush into perfect tinder which can all too easily catch fire. And these dying radioactive plantations are considered too dangerous and expensive to clear.

If ignited, one expert likens the potential effect to setting off a nuclear bomb in Eastern Europe. Wind could carry radioactive smoke particles large distances, not just in Ukraine, but right across the continent.

To help establish or disprove such hypotheses, [Sergiy Zibtsev, a professor from the Forestry Institute at the Kiev University of Life Sciences] has come to Chernobyl to gather data about a very large fire which spread unchecked and destroyed a huge area of Scots pine in 1992. A colleague is preparing a scientific paper on the fire’s consequences, which are still largely unknown.

[...]

Published: July 20th, 2012 at 11:42 am ET
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21 comments

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July 20th, 2012 | Category: Chernobyl
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21 comments to Expert on BBC: Like setting off a nuclear bomb in Eastern Europe? Fire fears for dying radioactive tree plantations around Chernobyl

  • Ron
    July 20, 2012 at 11:54 am

    Bury them? Dump 'em in magma flowing underground? Burn them and catch the smoke in some kind of huge filter?

    What a mess.


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    • lam335 lam335
      July 20, 2012 at 1:53 pm

      At least the Europeans have the good sense to be concerned about this timber catching fire. In Japan, burning such stuff is official policy. Go figure.

      I do wonder, though about this Chernobyl Forestry Enterprise's plan of planting new pines in this area, with the intention of "harvesting" them in 80 years’ time. Presumably those trees will also uptake radionuclides from the soil. True, about three and a half cesium half-lives would have passed by "harvest" time, but nastier things like plutonium could still be taken up by the trees. What will be done with them once they are harvested? Carpenters who build with them will breath in their saw dust (along with spreading it around construction sites), and if structures built with it burn or even if it ends up in fire wood piles, that pluto, etc. will still get releases.

      On the other hand, if no new trees are planted, would that somehow increase the likelihood that the soil would erode and blow around as dust? I'm not a geologist, so I don't know.

      I think the current trees should be buried deep underground, but I'm not sure about planting new trees in the area with the intention of using them for commercial purposes later on.


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  • Ganxet Ganxet
    July 20, 2012 at 12:23 pm

    It is better to sit on your couch watching the London Olympics, 21000 giving journalists information, about fucking olimpic games, what about Fukushima massive Extinction event? antinuclear few crazy ones?
    I think that's what we deserve, become walking deads ones.
    I can not understand.


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  • Max1 Max1
    July 20, 2012 at 12:42 pm

    Because this means Nuclear accidents can be decontaminated…
    … YES?

    Because this means nuclear is safe…
    … YES?

    Because this means burning radioactive debris is a good thing…
    … EH Japan?

    Lessons not learned = We all suffer the consequences, time and time again!


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  • patb2009
    July 20, 2012 at 12:50 pm

    i would suggest that the ukranians and russians cut systematic firebreaks through these plantations to cut them into very small grid squares and then wait until there has been some rain so that the moisture levels are reasonable and the temperatures are low and they initiate controlled burns when the air is very still.

    with small fires, the cesium will redeposit locally and if it's cool the smoke won't travel far.

    it's the best of the worst scenario.


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  • arclight arclight
    July 20, 2012 at 2:08 pm

    the links above dont let you download the programmes they were aired..

    looks like the stories have been pulled..

    got this version though and he talks about his work in japan etc ..

    Sunday, April 22, 2012

    SUNDAY TIMEOUT
    Chernobyl expert takes a look at Tohoku's trees

    By WINIFRED BIRD
    Special to The Japan Times

    "..Broadly experienced and sharply intelligent, Zibtsev speaks with confidence about Ukraine's hard-won knowledge. Yet the lessons, he says, cannot easily be transferred to Japan. Radionuclides move differently through the environment depending on tree type, climate and topography (Fukushima Prefecture is mountainous; the Chernobyl exclusion zone is mostly flat).

    Also, radiocesium binds strongly to clay soils (common in Japan) but washes easily out of sandy ones (common in Ukraine).

    And how people use forests for food, fuel, building and recreation influences how much radiation reaches their bodies — while politics, economics and culture sway the success of attempts to limit human exposure…"

    "..Whereas in the long term Japan faces mostly radiocesium contamination, Ukraine also has to deal with contaminants including radiostrontium and, near the plant, plutonium…"

    bit less spin and a bit more info on this article

    http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20120422x2.html#.UAmc0GF8B8E


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  • obewanspeaks obewanspeaks
    July 20, 2012 at 6:35 pm

    We have been witnessing the death and sterilization of the planet called Earth, which began in 1945.

    Unless we change direction immediately, we will "all" face the consequences of utilizing this Nuclear Technology.

    No one will escape what we are now watching unfold worldwide.


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  • nedlifromvermont
    July 20, 2012 at 8:09 pm

    saikado hantei !!

    Go Japan! Go Vermont!

    Shut Down Big Nuclear Poison Factories

    and their Lying Corporate/Military Mafia Thug Owner/Promoters …

    Forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do

    But shut them down for Good Measure and Planetary Survival … No Joke!!!

    peace …


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