An aerial view from a helicopter shows smoke from forest fires. [Photo/Agencies] |
"Wildfires ... pose a high risk of redistributing radioactivity," according to a paper published in Ecological Monographs, titled 'Fire evolution in the radioactive forests of Ukraine and Belarus: future risks for the population and the environment.'
Chernobyl's Reactor 4, the epicentre of the 1986 blast, is covered with a concrete casement that the Ukrainian authorities plan to replace by 2016.