Russian Fires Approach Nuclear Facilities

[n2doc]

By Duncan Geere, Wired.co.uk August 10, 2010



Russia is, at the time of writing, being consumed by wildfires caused by the worst heat wave the country has endured in a millennia. A state of emergency has been declared in 35 regions of the country — seven for the fires themselves, and another 28 for crop failures caused by the drought and heat wave.

UK media has largely ignored the disaster, but the web is alive with eye-witness accounts, photographs, videos and maps of how the flames are spreading. Most of the information is coming through blogging site LiveJournal, which has a large Russian population.

Following the July heat wave in the country, peat fires — which can smoulder for years underground — ignited forest fires in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, the Voronezh Oblast, and across central and western Russia. A few days later, an area of 500,000 hectares was ablaze, with Moscow shrouded in a dense, thick smoke.

Since then, the area of the fires has been brought under control, with now only about 200,000 hectares ablaze, but there are much bigger problems looming. The fires have approached the Red Forest, an area that suffered the worst of Chernobyl’s fallout in 1986, with the soil still heavily contaminated by cesium-137 and strontium-90.



Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/russian-fires-approach-nuclear-plants/

[lillypaddle]

1. Wow. nt

[FedUpWithIt All]

2. Some reports are saying that embassies in Russia were evacuated.

There is mention of possible high radiation exposure (radioactive soil being heated) and very dangerous smog.

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/embassies-evacuated-in-smoke-covered-moscow_100408416.html

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada/Canadian+embassy+Moscow+partially+evacuated+fires/3374325/story.html