The Chernobyl fire continues to rage in Northern Ukraine, and now it's moving dangerously close to Chernobyl's center where the nuclear power plant is, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history.
Moving Closer to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
According to a report by BBC, the fire is now only within 1.24 miles or 2 kilometers away from the site where dangerous radioactive waste from the plant is stored.
Yaroslav Emelianenko, a tour operator, said that the Chernobyl fire has already reached the abandoned town of Pripyat, which previously served the plant.
The tour operator captured a video of the fire, showing the flames and smoke rising from the affected areas.
In a previous report by TechTimes, the fire started on April 4 near Vladimirovka, another uninhabited town within the Exclusion Zone.
According to Ukrainian officials, the two forest fires that initially covered 50 acres of land for the bigger fire, and that the smaller fire covered around 12 acres of land.
Additionally, the Ukrainian Emergency Services Ministry said that the fire has already been extinguished, but a satellite has caught fire from space, and it shows that the fire is far from being controlled and that it has already spread and is now bigger.
Spreading Rapidly
Greenpeace initially said that the authorities had underestimated the fire's size, and now, the larger of the two fires have already covered 34,000 hectares of land while the smaller fire has consumed 12,000 hectares of land.
The NGO's Russian branch even said that the current Chernobyl wildfire is the biggest fire in the Exclusion Zone so far and that they are "hoping for rain" to help extinguish the massive fires blazing through Chernobyl.
Since the fire is moving dangerously close to the nuclear power plant, it could cause massive problems, especially with the radiation issues that plagued Chernobyl in the first place.
The win, which could be one of the reasons why the fire spread rapidly, could also scatter radioactive material.
How is Radioactivity in the Place?
In the previous reports, the fire has already caused a spike in the area near Vladimirovka, with the radiation getting 16 times higher than usual. However, authorities guarantee that the radiation level in Kiev, Ukraine's capital city, is still normal and harmless.
In addition, deputy minister of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Anton Herashchenko, said that the background radiation levels remain unchanged.
Besides radiation problems, Emelianenko said that the fire could cause an economic disaster if it ever engulfs Pripyat, especially since supervised tourist tours are one of their sources of revenue.
In 2018, Pripyat saw over 70,000 visitors, which increased last year thanks to the launch of HBO mini-series entitled Chernobyl, which focused on the disaster that happened decades ago.
Acting Head of the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management, Kateryna Pavlova, said that they have been working day and night to stop the wildfires, according to CNET, and that there are currently over 400 firefighters working to contain the fire.
"We have been working all night, digging firebreaks around the plant to protect it from fire," Pavlova said.
