Europe-Wide Atmospheric Radionuclide Dispersion by Unprecedented Wildfires in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, April 2020

authored by

Olivier Masson, Oleksandr Romanenko, Olivier Saunier, Serhii Kirieiev, Valentin Protsak, Gennady Laptev, Oleg Voitsekhovych, Vanessa Durand, Frédéric Coppin, Georg Steinhauser, Anne De Vismes Ott, Philippe Renaud, Damien Didier, Béatrice Boulet, Maxime Morin, Miroslav Hýža, Johan Camps, Olga Belyaeva, Axel Dalheimer, Konstantinos Eleftheriadis, Catalina Gascó-Leonarte, Alexandra Ioannidou, Krzysztof Isajenko, Tero Karhunen, Johan Kastlander, Christian Katzlberger, Renata Kierepko, Gert Jan Knetsch, Júlia Kövendiné Kónyi, Jerzy Wojciech Mietelski, Michael Mirsch, Bredo Møller, Jelena Krneta Nikolić, Rosella Rusconi, Vladimir Samsonov, Elena Simion, Philipp Steinmann, Stylianos Stoulos, José Antonio Suarez-Navarro, Herbert Wershofen, Daniel Zapata-García, Benjamin Zorko

Abstract

From early April 2020, wildfires raged in the highly contaminated areas around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (CNPP), Ukraine. For about 4 weeks, the fires spread around and into the Chernobyl exclusion zone (CEZ) and came within a few kilometers of both the CNPP and radioactive waste storage facilities. Wildfires occurred on several occasions throughout the month of April. They were extinguished, but weather conditions and the spread of fires by airborne embers and smoldering fires led to new fires starting at different locations of the CEZ. The forest fires were only completely under control at the beginning of May, thanks to the tireless and incessant work of the firefighters and a period of sustained precipitation. In total, 0.7-1.2 TBq 137Cs were released into the atmosphere. Smoke plumes partly spread south and west and contributed to the detection of airborne 137Cs over the Ukrainian territory and as far away as Western Europe. The increase in airborne 137Cs ranged from several hundred μBq·m-3 in northern Ukraine to trace levels of a few μBq·m-3 or even within the usual background level in other European countries. Dispersion modeling determined the plume arrival time and was helpful in the assessment of the possible increase in airborne 137Cs concentrations in Europe. Detections of airborne 90Sr (emission estimate 345-612 GBq) and Pu (up to 75 GBq, mostly 241Pu) were reported from the CEZ. Americium-241 represented only 1.4% of the total source term corresponding to the studied anthropogenic radionuclides but would have contributed up to 80% of the inhalation dose.

Organisation(s)

Centre for Radiation Protection and Radioecology

External Organisation(s)

French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA)
Rivne Nuclear Power Plant (ENERGOATOM)
State Specialized Enterprise Ecocentre (SSE ECOCENTRE)
Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center
National Radiation Protection Institute (NRPI)
Belgian Nuclear Research Center
National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (NAS RA)
Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD)
National Centre of Scientific Research DEMOKRITOS (NCSR Demokritos)
Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (CIEMAT)
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (A.U.Th.)
Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection
Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK)
Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI)
Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES)
Instytut Chemii Bioorganicznej Polskiej Akademii Nauk
National Institute of Public Health and the Environment
National Public Health Center (NPHC) of Hungary
Norwegian Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (DSA)
University of Belgrade
Comenius University
Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione dell'Ambiente della Lombardia (ARPA Lombardia)
Radioactive Contamination Control and Environmental Monitoring
National Environmental Protection Agency
Federal Office of Public Health
National Metrology Institute of Germany (PTB)
Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI)

Type

Article

Journal

Environmental Science and Technology

Volume

55

Pages

13834-13848

No. of pages

15

ISSN

0013-936X

Publication date

19.10.2021

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Chemistry(all), Environmental Chemistry

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c03314 (Access: Closed)