-
Topics
subnavigation
Topics
Electromagnetic fields
- What are electromagnetic fields?
- Static and low-frequency fields
- Radiation protection relating to the expansion of the national grid
- High-frequency fields
- Radiation protection in mobile communication
Optical radiation
Ionising radiation
- What is ionising radiation?
- Radioactivity in the environment
- Applications in medicine
- Applications in daily life and in technology
- Effects
- What are the effects of radiation?
- Effects of selected radioactive materials
- Consequences of a radiation accident
- Cancer and leukaemia
- Genetic radiation effects
- Individual radiosensitivity
- Epidemiology of radiation-induced diseases
- Ionising radiation: positive effects?
- Risk estimation and assessment
- Radiation protection
- Nuclear accident management
- Service offers
-
The BfS
subnavigation
The BfS
- About us
- Science and research
- Laws and regulations
- BfS Topics in the Bundestag
- Links
Chernobyl: Measurements of environmental radioactivity after forest fire
No increased measurement values ascertained
At the end of last week, the Ukrainian fire brigade battled a forest fire in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl. According to information from the Ukrainian authorities, the fire has since been extinguished. An area of around 25 hectares was affected. To date, the BfS has not ascertained any increase in radioactivity in the air in Germany. There is no risk to human health or to the environment.
Using the information given, the BfS calculated how much radioactive Caesium 137 could have been released by the forest fire. With these data, a calculation was commissioned by the German Meteorological Service (DWD) to show how Caesium 137 spreads through the atmosphere for the stated duration of the fire. BfS experts analysed this calculation with the help of the decision-making modelling assistant RODOS ("Realtime Online Decision Support System"
), which enabled the future environmental contamination and the expected doses to be estimated. It was found that:
- Because of the weather situation, no radioactivity can currently reach Germany.
- Even in unfavourable weather conditions and on reignition of the fire, the effects in Germany would be extremely mild (around 10 million times smaller than after the reactor accident in 1986). In that case too, there was no risk to human health or to the environment.
Forest fires around Chernobyl occurring more frequently
Due to the dryness of the season, there have been repeated forest fires and wildfires in the region around Chernobyl. These can lead to radioactive particles being stirred up into the atmosphere along with the ash. Recently in April 2015, a largescale forest fire with a dimension of around 400 hectares was reported in the region around Chernobyl. However, the sensitive measurement instruments of the BfS could not ascertain any increase in radioactivity in the air in Germany during this fire.
The Federal Office for Radiation Protection operates one of the leading stations worldwide for the measurement of radioactivity on the Schauinsland Mountain near Freiburg. The measurement station - one of 80 radionuclide measurement stations for monitoring nuclear weapons tests and the like in central Europe – is in a position to identify even the tiniest quantities of radioactive materials in the air. Increased Caesium 137 concentrations, which were attributable to a wildfire in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl, were registered at Schauinsland for example in the summer of 1992. The measurements in the coming weeks will be tested in a targeted way for traces from the most recent forest fire.
State of 2017.07.04