Crops grown near the Chernobyl nuclear site in Ukraine are still contaminated with radiation from the 1986 explosive disaster.
In a new study, researchers found that wheat, rye, oats and barley grown in this area contained two radioactive isotopes – strontium 90 and cesium 137 – that exceeded safe consumption limits. Radioactive isotopes are elements that have high masses and therefore release excess energy.
“Our findings indicate continued contamination and human exposure, exacerbated by a lack of routine official monitoring,” said David Santillo, a forensic environmental researcher at Greenpeace Research Laboratories at the University of Exeter. he said in a statement, referring to the fact that the government suspended its radioactive monitoring program in 2013.
Related: 5 weird things you didn’t know about Chernobyl
Santillo and colleagues, in collaboration with researchers at the Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology, analyzed 116 grain samples, collected between 2011 and 2019, from the Ivankiv district of Ukraine – about 50 kilometers south of the nuclear power plant.
This area is outside the “exclusion zone” of Chernobyl, which has a radius of 30 miles (48 km) around the plant that was evacuated in 1986 and remained unoccupied. They found that radioactive isotopes, mainly strontium 90, were above the safe consumption level in 48% of the samples. They also found that wood samples collected from the same region between 2015 and 2019 had strontium levels 90 above the safety limit for firewood.
Researchers believe that persistent radiation from wood, in particular, may be the reason for the continued contamination of crops, almost 35 years after the disaster. When they analyzed the wood ash from the domestic wood-burning ovens, they found strontium 90 levels 25 times higher than the safety limit. The locals use this ash, as well as the ash from the local thermal power plant (TPP), to fertilize their crops, which continue to circulate radiation through the soil.
However, computer simulations suggest that it may be possible to grow crops in the region at “safe” levels if this process of repeated contamination ceases. Researchers are now calling on the Ukrainian government to re-establish its monitoring program and create a system for the proper disposal of radioactive ash.
“Contamination of cereals and timber in the Ivankiv district remains a major concern and deserves further urgent investigation,” said study author Valery Kashparov, director of the Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology. “Similarly, further research is urgently needed to assess the effects of the Ivankiv POS on the environment and local residents, who are still largely unknown.”
The findings were published in the journal on December 17 Environment International.
Originally published on Live Science.