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Chernobyl fires have not increased radiation level in Estonia

BC, Tallinn, 30.04.2015.Print version
The landscape fires in Ukraine, in the vicinity of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, have not increased the radiation level in Estonia, Public Broadcasting cites the Environment Board.

Environment Board Radiation Monitoring Department chief specialist Alar Polt told Public Broadcasting that the smoke particles of the Ukrainian fires have not reached Estonia, but the impact of the fires may not be measurable for weeks, reports LETA.



 

Alar Polt noted that leaving aside the Fukushima disaster, a marked increase in the concentration of radioactive isotopes occurred in Estonia most recently in 2006, during the large-scale forest fires that ranged around the Ladoga Lake for a long time, when pollutants of Chernobyl origin were released.

 

Radioactive isotopes-bearing particles reaching Estonia are determined by three air monitoring stations – in Narva-Jõesuu, Harku and Tõravere. Alar Polt explained that in each of them, exterior air is pumped through a filter for a week and the result is analyzed in the laboratory. "A week of pumping time is needed in order to discover something; the concentrations are so small that they could otherwise not be measured," said the specialist.






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