Crops growing near the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant are still contaminated
In a new study, scientists found thatwheat, rye, oats and barley that grow in this area contain two radioactive isotopes - strontium-90 and cesium-137 - which are above safe limits.
“Our findings indicate an ongoingpollution and exposure of people. This process is compounded by the lack of official monitoring by the authorities, ”said study author David Santillo, a forensic environmental expert at the Greenpeace research laboratories at the University of Exeter. He referred to the fact that the Ukrainian government suspended its radioactive elements monitoring program in 2013.
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Researchers, in collaboration with the UkrainianInstitute of Agricultural Radiology, analyzed 116 grain samples collected in 2011-2019 from the Ivankovsky region of Ukraine - this is about 50 km south of the former nuclear power plant.
This territory is outside the "zonealienation "of Chernobyl, the radius of which is 48 km around the nuclear power plant. Radioactive isotopes were found in 48% of the samples, mainly strontium-90, which exceeded safe levels. They also found that in wood samples taken in the same region between 2015 and 2019, strontium-90 levels exceeded the safe limit - they cannot even be used as firewood.
Researchers believe that radiation in woodmay be the cause of ongoing radioactive contamination of crops almost 35 years after the disaster. When analyzing wood ash from stoves, they found levels of strontium-90 25 times higher than the safe limit. Local residents use this ash, as well as ash from the local thermal power plant, to fertilize their crops. This process continues the cycle of radiation through the soil.
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