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Crops grown near the Chernobyl nuclear site in Ukraine are still contaminated by radiation from the explosive disaster of 1986.
In a new study, researchers found that the wheat, rye, oats and barley grown in this region contained two radioactive isotopes – strontium 90 and cesium 137 – which were above safe limits for consumption. . Radioactive isotopes are elements which have increased masses and which release excess energy as a result.
“Our results indicate continued contamination and human exposure, made worse by the lack of official routine monitoring,” said study author David Santillo, an environmental specialist at the University of Greenpeace Research Laboratories. ‘Exeter, said in a press release, referring to the fact that the government suspended its monitoring program for radioactive goods in 2013.
Related: 5 weird things you didn’t know about Chernobyl
Santillo and his colleagues, together with researchers from the Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology, analyzed 116 samples of cereals, collected between 2011 and 2019, in the Ivankiv district of Ukraine, about 50 kilometers south of the plant. nuclear.
This area is outside the Chernobyl “exclusion zone”, which is a 30-mile (48 km) radius around the plant which was evacuated in 1986 and has remained unoccupied. They found that radioactive isotopes, primarily strontium-90, were above safe to consume in 48% of the samples. They also found that wood samples taken from the same region between 2015 and 2019 had strontium-90 levels above the safe limit for firewood.
Researchers believe that persistent radiation in wood, in particular, may be the reason for continued contamination of crops, nearly 35 years after the disaster. When analyzing wood ash from domestic wood-fired ovens, they found strontium-90 levels that were 25 times higher than the safe limit. Residents use this ash, along with the ash from the local thermal power plant (TPP), to fertilize their crops, which continue to circulate radiation through their soil.
However, computer simulations suggest that it may be possible to grow crops in the area to “safe” levels if this process of repeated contamination ceases. Researchers are now calling on the Ukrainian government to reinstate its surveillance program and create a system to properly dispose of radioactive ash.
“Contamination of grain and timber grown in Ivankiv district remains a major concern and deserves urgent further investigation,” said study author Valery Kashparov, director of the Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology. to assess the effects of Ivankiv’s TPP on the environment and local residents, which are still largely unknown. “
The results were published on December 17 in the journal International environment.
Originally posted on Live Science.
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