Fires in Ukraine in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl power plant: Situation as of April 17,2020
The fires in Ukraine, which had been announced extinguished on April 15, 2020, were reactivated under the effect of strong winds which stirred up the embers of previous fires.
On April 17, 2020, IRSN produced a new information report explaining the evolution of the fires compared to the situation presented on April 15, 2020, and specifying some elements relating to the nuclear installations located on the site of the Chernobyl NPP.
Download the IRSN information note of 17 April 2020: Fires in Ukraine in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl power station: Situation report
Modeling of the dispersion in Europe of the air masses from the fires in the Chernobyl region: version of April 17, 2020
This update presents a new version of the modeling of the air mass trajectories from the fire area and now covers the period from 3 to 20 April 2020.
The red triangle represents the location of the fires, the time is in UTC.
The radioactive release used was evaluated by reverse modeling (use of available measurements). This simulation was performed on the assumption that the average radioactive releases, which occurred between April 3 and 12, 2020, will continue from April 14 to 20, 2020.