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On April 26, 1986 the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in what is now Ukraine experienced an accident at level 7 of the International Nuclear Event Scale.
The highest level on the scale, level 7 is classed as a ‘major accident’, meaning that there has been a high amount of radioactive material released, with significant consequences on nearby people and environments. So far in history, there have been only two nuclear disasters at level 7: Chernobyl and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which occurred in 2011.
As such, a 4,200 square kilometer exclusion zone was put in place around the nuclear power plant, with the whole land around it being deemed so radioactive that people couldn’t live or visit any longer. This amounted to the evacuation of 68,000 people.
In fact, even though only 31 people died as a result of the accident, there has been a high rate of cancer cases in the people who were around Chernobyl on the day of and immediately after the disaster.
Only in the year 2000 (fourteen years after the disaster) did tourists start being able to visit Chernobyl; it was designated a tourist site in 2019, though visitors still have to wear specific clothing and be scanned for radiation on entry and exit.
International Atomic Energy Agency
However, almost forty years down the line, scientists are beginning to wonder whether radioactivity in the land around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant has decreased in radioactivity sufficiently for human activity to resume there.
And thanks to a new study from British and Ukrainian scientists, recently published in the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, they may have their answer.
After taking soil and environmental samples from farmland in ‘Zone 2’ (an outer area in which some people remained living) that has been left abandoned since the disaster, the scientists confirmed that the gamma radiation that farmers would be exposed to while working the fields would be safe under Ukrainian and international legislation.
Meanwhile, as the authors explain in the paper, the soil samples found that the radioactive materials which had leeched into the soil after the disaster were low. Since many of these radioactive materials have a half-life of thirty years, this is logical, but since radiation can be absorbed by plants from the soil it grows in, it was important that thorough checks were made:
“This evaluation of soil-crop transfer of contaminated land has shown that large areas of land in Zone 2 could potentially be de-restricted and used for agriculture. The key determinant of land use is the 137Cs contamination density. Strontium-90 has higher soil-crop transfer factors but is at much lower deposition densities than 137Cs so is unlikely to be a limiting factor in re-use of land in this area.”
To truly test this, though, the researchers decided to set up a farm site of their own.
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Their 100-hectare site in Zone 2 continued to test the soil whilst also growing plants of their own to truly determine how much radioactive material they absorbed.
In fact, their farming proved so successful that the researchers suggested that – though Zone 1 was still unsuitable for the growth of crops for consumption – most crops could be safely grown in Zone 2, with some restrictions, as the authors continue:
“The pilot field site could be used to produce crops which are below permissible levels for consumption, with some restrictions (at least for part of the field) on which crops could be grown.”
These restrictions regarded legumes in particular. These types of plants are known to absorb more radioactive material from their soil than other crops, and therefore could not be deemed safe for consumption.
On the basis of their experiment, the scientists advise that if the land is to be used for agriculture once again, the following measures should be adhered to: surveying plots before they are used; sampling soil to ensure low radioactivity; ensuring crops are not of a kind likely to absorb too much radioactive material from the soil; monitoring potential surface contamination; testing the first harvest of crops to check their levels of radioactive material.
With these measures in place, crops should be able to be grown here safely, which is great news for Ukraine since 20,000 hectares of viable farmland could be reclaimed.
If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about why we should be worried about the leak in the bottom of the ocean.