Chernobyl: how is the "red forest", one of the most radioactive places in the world

After the disaster, many living beings who lived there died, among them their trees.

The pine needles, an abundant and common tree in the area, have taken on a reddish color, which gave the forest its name. Even today, many trees retain an orange color.

Fauna and flora were also damaged in an area of ​​around 120 km2 around the plant.

Many areas of this forest are still absolutely impbadable to humans because of their extremely high level of pollution.

Now, a group of researchers at the National Center for Nuclear Robotics (NCNR) in the UK has developed an unmanned aircraft mapping system that allows scientists to study such dangerous locations at a safe distance.

The monitoring of the area made it possible to evaluate the current level of contamination and to obtain new information.

The technique

For the first time, fixed-wing vessels were used to prepare a radiation map. The aircraft flew in a grid at a speed of 65 km / h and at a height not exceeding the treetops.

When the aircraft detected an area of ​​interest, unmanned aircraft were integrated into the work. Thanks to their rotating wing, they were able to float on the area of ​​interest, then use their sensors to acquire high resolution 3D information.

The tracing carried out last April gave a clear picture of the radioactive distribution that continues today in the forest, but in a much more precise and detailed way than the one that existed until now.

In addition, drones have been able to identify some points with unexpected levels of contamination.

Discoveries

One of the points of interest recorded by the aircraft in flight was an old ground separation unit located a few kilometers south of the forest. It was used during the first clearance tasks after the disaster.

"They tried to separate the contamination and thus reduce the volume of waste," Professor Tom Scott of Bristol University and co-director of the NCNR told the BBC.

"What's left in this facility is essentially scattered nuclear fuel on the ground, which has received a very high radiation dose."

The NCNR team plans to return to Ukraine in the coming months to study new areas in the 2,600 square kilometer exclusion zone of Chernobyl and to allow more and more people to enter.

Last year, some 70,000 tourists visited the region and projects are planning land use in this region to generate energy using solar panels.

It is hoped that the mapping done by the UK institution will help improve future security protocols for people entering the exclusion zone.

BBC.