Chernobyl

April 8

April 9

April 12

April 13

Chernobyl Forest Fires

1. Vector Industrial Complex The “Vector” industrial complex is intended for the treatment, processing, storage, and disposal of radioactive waste not just from Chernobyl, but from the entirety of Ukraine. The complex includes multiple facilities for handling different types of waste. The Vector complex is located approximately 7 mi (11 km) southwest of the power plant. Damage resulting from the fire, though not necessarily the fire itself, approached no closer than approximately 2 mi (3 km) from Vector complex.

2. Pripyat The town of Pripyat was built to support Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. By early 1986, nearly 50,000 people lived in the town. Less than two days after the accident, the entire town was evacuated. Pripyat is now a major tourist attraction, with 124,000 visitors in 2019. The recent fires may have reached as close as 550 yards (500m) from the town proper and possibly destroyed some of the buildings south of the town.

3. Pidlisnyi Radioactive Waste Disposal Site The Pidlisnyi Radioactive Waste Disposal Site was created after the Chernobyl accident to store high-level radioactive waste, including parts of the reactor core. The site was used between 1986 and 1988. The Ukrainian government intends to move this waste to a geological repository at some point in the future. Pidlisnyi PZRV is located north of the power plant; as a result, the fires never reached closer than approximately 1.7 mi (2.75 km) from Pidlisnyi.

4. Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is the largest facility of concern in the Exclusion Zone. The site of the 1986 nuclear disaster, the power plant hosted 4 RBMK-1000 reactors. While the 3 remaining reactors were kept in service after the disaster, they were subsequently decommissioned, and are no longer operational. The westernmost reactor is number 4, which was destroyed in the 1986 disaster, and is now covered by the New Safe Confinement. Based on satellite imagery, the fires reached approximately 1.2 mi (2 km) from the New Safe Confinement.

5. Liquid Radioactive Waste Treatment Plant The Liquid Radioactive Waste Treatment Plant (LRWTP) processes liquid radioactive waste via cementation. The volume of liquid is reduced by purification, and the resulting sludge is place in a drum. Specialized dry cement is then added to the container and mixed. This incorporates and immobilizes the radioactive material within the concrete in a form suitable for long-term storage. LRWTP is located withing the boundaries of the power plant, just west of the ICSRWM. The fire reached no closer than 1.6 mi (2.6 km) from the LRWTP.

6. Industrial Complex for Solid Radioactive Wastes Management The Industrial Complex for Solid Radioactive Wastes Management (ICSRWM) is intended to process and/or dispose of solid radioactive waste generated by the decommissioning of Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The facility entered the third stage of testing in February 2019. The ICSRWM is split between two locations. The main part of the Complex is located within the boundaries of the power plant, just north of reactors 1 and 2. The fire reached approximately 1.7 mi (2.75km) away from this location. The other part of the ICSRWM is located at the Vector facility. Damage resulting from the fire, though not necessarily the fire itself, approached no closer than approximately 2 mi (3.25 km) from this location.

8. Interim Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel The Interim Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel (ISF-2) is a dry cask packaging and storage facility. The spent reactor fuel for Chernobyl reactors 1, 2, and 3 is currently in wet storage (ISF-1); wet storage helps cool the spent fuel while high activity, short-lived radionuclides burn off. When ISF-2 is commissioned in 2020, the spent fuel will be sent there. ISF-2 will remove any water from the fuel assemblies and repackage them in dry casks. The casks will be stored at ISF-2 for approximately 100 years. ISF-2 is located southeast of the power plant; damage resulting from the fire, though not necessarily the fire itself, reached approximately 0.8 mi (1.3 km) from the facility.

7. ChNPP Phase III Radioactive Waste Disposal Site "ChNPP Phase III" was created in early years of the Chernobyl disaster. The most dangerous high-level and long-lived radioactive waste were disposed in this site. Recent fires approached no closer than 1.4 mi (2.25 km) from the ChNPP Phase III site.

9. Duga-1 Radar The Duga-1 radar was an over-the-horizon ballistic missile warning radar. Built in the 1970’s, the Duga radar was intended to detect missile launches in the United States by bouncing radar waves off of the ionosphere. The system suffered from ionospheric interference in the polar regions and was offline at the time of the Chernobyl disaster. It was never reactivated. This is the receiver site; the transmitter was located 36 mi (58 km) to the northeast near the town of Rozsudiv. The recent fires approached very close to the radar site. While the radar antennas are still standing, it is not clear if the site was damaged.