Abysmal ignorance leads to trouble
At the end of April, the Ukrainian media traditionally dedicate part of their materials to the anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster. On April 26, mankind remembers the terrible events of 1986 and discusses measures that would make such things impossible in the future. Until recently, it was believed that the conclusions of this tragedy were made by all countries of the world. But, as it turned out, this is not the case. Who could imagine that thirty-six years later Ukraine would face a nuclear threat again - this time caused by the military aggression of the russian federation, which seized two nuclear power plants ignoring all written and non-written rules of war and international law? The occupiers took control of the long-suffering Chornobyl nuclear power plant on February 24.
Ignorance leads to trouble
In the combat training of the former Soviet army, a discipline was obligatory for study in all branches and types of armed forces, the name of which was abbreviated in the training schedules - "NBC Protection" (“ЗОМП - защита от оружия массового поражения” as the language of the army was exclusively Russian). In the first hours of training, servicemen were told about the devastating factors of a nuclear explosion. Any soldier, from private to general, could list them even being only half-awake. One of these factors is radioactive area contamination.
The russian army calls itself the successor to the soviet army, but does not seem to be studying NBC Protection. How else the actions of russian orcs in the temporarily occupied Chornobyl and surrounding areas could be explained? Let's leave aside the more than 600-hour duty at gunpoint of 59 of its employees (instead of 12 hours of the usual turn) - books will be written about it and films will be made about it. Let's just remember where and how the enemies organized their positions.
Among the sites they chose was the world-famous Red Forest, the part of the area around the station that absorbed the largest share of radioactive dust during the fourth reactor explosion in 1986, resulting in the already familiar radioactive area contamination from the NBC Protection course. The forest became "red" because the needles of the local pines became brick-red due to high-intensity irradiation. During the area decontamination, radioactive trees which even glowed at night due to the interaction of their enzymes with radioactive particles and radioactive decay were bulldozed and buried. Eventually, the forest began to recover naturally but the radiation background there remains very high. Today, this place has the official status of the Point of Temporary Localization of Radioactive Waste "Red Forest" in the exclusion zone of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. Soon the aggressors felt and realized what it was and how dangerous it was to stay there for several weeks. So, life has proved once again that ignorance can do great harm.
Picnic in the "Red Forest"
A few days after the horde left the Chornobyl nuclear power plant on March 31, employees of the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management arrived there. They visited the offices and production sites of the state specialized enterprises "ChNPP", " Central Enterprise for the Management of Radioactive Waste", "Pushcha North", the Reserve and others. They also visited the Complex “Vector”, which provides for storage and disposal of nuclear waste, the Centralized Spent Fuel Storage Facility, which is a strategic object of NNEGC Energoatom, etc. What they saw there is told on the Agency's website: "Pretty much every office space in the buildings of enterprises has been significantly damaged, broken and completely stolen. They stole both company assets and personal belongings of workers at their workplaces." In addition, the automated radiation monitoring system, which monitored the equivalent dose rate of gamma radiation throughout the exclusion zone at 39 stationary points in real-time, was completely disabled. Putin's invaders not only looted the SSE Ecocentre, but also confiscated server equipment that handled and processed the information.
State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management officers also inspected the area where rashist soldiers were intrenching. What they saw there was literally stunning. It turned out that the russians lived not only at the station, but also in houses abandoned in 1986; most of the time they spent in trenches, arranged picnics, or rather drinking sprees, in the contaminated area, scattering litter and leftovers just where encamped. And, most importantly, they dug trenches and erected other fortifications on the ground, which will not be suitable for human activity for many decades.
It should be noted that according to experts, during the time since the Chornobyl disaster, the main layer of radionuclides, which then lay on the ground, has already fallen 30-60 cm below its surface. But any earth works break the natural barrier, which is the soil. So, considering that the depth of the kneeling trench is 60 cm, and the depth of the standing one is at least 1 meter, it is easy to imagine how much radioactive sand and clay these soldiers brought to the surface.
Moreover, the horde created another danger. Thousands of their heavy vehicles passed through the Chornobyl Zone on routes prohibited for movement, especially when leaving the Kyiv region. Nobody knows how much radioactive waste these vehicles removed on their wheels and tracks. With regard to their number and the fact that the uplifted radioactive sand was carried by strong March winds throughout the area of the Zone, we can assume that a lot. In addition, the orcs filled the bags with radioactive sand, and used them in the construction of their checkpoints.
And the icing on this radioactive cake. On April 9, State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management talked about it on its Facebook page: "The occupiers stole and damaged 133 sources with a total activity of about 7 million Becquerels. This is comparable to 700 kg of radioactive waste with beta and gamma radiation. Even a small part of this activity is deadly if handled unprofessionally and uncontrollably. The location of the stolen sources is currently unknown. The degree of preservation and safety of calibration sources and standard radioactive solutions cannot be established… ". In the State Agency they think that these sources of radiation and fuel, most likely, were taken "for souvenirs".
Consequences of the invasion
According to the information provided on Energoatom telegram channel, measurements of the radiation background on the Red Forest territory, which were made by specialists of the National Nuclear Energy Generating Company of Ukraine after the Chornobyl retake, showed very high values. For example, the external radiation (gamma background) at the measurement sites was 3.2-4 μSv / h. (microsieverts per hour), which is 10-15 times higher than normal, and one of the indicators that forms the internal radiation received by the occupiers from the soil surface (beta contamination), in the measurement areas was 90 Sv, which is 160 times more than normal.
For the rashists themselves, the consequences of picnics in contaminated areas were not long in coming. An adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Anton Gerashchenko, reported that the first death of the occupier who was in Chornobyl, from radiation sickness was recorded in early April: "According to the military medical service of the russian federation, the first death of the occupier in Chornobyl from radiation sickness was recorded. Another 26 people were hospitalized, and 73 people in critical condition were sent to hospitals for examination and treatment." Of course, the threat was also posed by equipment that was in contaminated areas. Actually, like orcs themselves, because their uniforms have gathered radioactive dust. And also, all the goods stolen at the station and in the surrounding settlements - from forks to home appliances. All these have become mobile sources of radiation.
But it is not the health of the occupiers and the danger that awaits them that worries us, - after their abhorrent deeds in Ukraine, we have zero sympathy with them. To be perfectly frank, we care little about how much radioactive waste the aggressors transported in their automobiles to russia and allied Belarus. However, the question about their, so to speak, heritage in Ukraine came up. On April 1, Yaroslav Yemelianenko, a member of the Public Council at the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management, stated on the National Telemarathon that after a month of the occupiers' stay at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, the same work should be carried out as after the disaster in 1986. Before that, it is only necessary to conduct an audit of what Ukraine received as a result of five weeks of russian troops’ stay at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant and in the Exclusion Zone.
So, most likely, in the 30-kilometer zone we will have to start decontamination of territories and, definitely, equipment, without which activities there are impossible.
"KPI Technology" and others
Six years ago, Kyiv Polytechnic published a material entitled " Decontamination of water: How was the "KPI Technology" created ". Chornobyl liquidators, PhD, associate professors A. D. Krysenko and V. P. Basov talked about their experience of sanitisation of radionuclides polluted water after washing radioactive contaminated wheeled and tracked vehicles used in the post-accident clean-up. Since the construction of stationary sanitation points for transport with the subsequent disinfection of used water required time and money, as late as the summer of 1986 Kyiv Polytechnic Institute specialists led by senior scientist O.P. Shutko developed their own technology and mobile units, which allowed to disinfect water in storage tanks directly from the wheels. Later it received the official title "KPI Technology". At the CD headquarters of the city was established a unit of 11 people with the official name "Water decontamination group", which dealt with all issues of water decontamination after washing the contaminated vehicles during 1986-87. Thanks to this technology, the need in planned construction of stationary cleansing structures was removed. So now we may have to use this and other technologies that proved their effectiveness more than 30 years ago, of course, taking into account the new achievements of our scientists in recent years.