Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Congressional Hearings Transcript

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are proposals that Kyiv be proclaimed a disaster zone. Practically,
we cannot ever create the zone including Kyiv, and I don't believe
that it would be the right decision.
The only problem is clean water, clean food. It's a big problem
for us, because, in very contaminated areas, it's the main problem
for people who live in those areas.
Mr. Smith. Mention was made earlier about a forest fire which
spread further the contamination. How far did it spread?
What other naturally occurring phenomena could cause a spreading
east, west, south, or north? And what can be done to mitigate
those dangers? Dr. Feshbach, perhaps.
Dr. Feshbach. Well, the key phrase, as I understood it, was
"naturally occurring." There's none that I can think of, unless, you
know, it's among animals, or something like that. But none really.
I mean, the forests are the biggest issue, I think, right now. There's
water, in terms of its movements, but that's about it.
Mr. Smith. Yes?
Amb. Martynov. With your permission. Chairman Smith. I just
returned yesterday from a visit to Tulane University in Louisiana,
and they are heading a joint project with a Belarusian research institution
on migration of radiation.
Apart from the forest fires, another important danger is floods,
because radioactive isotopes are also found in sediments in rivers.
They are relatively quiet, until a flood comes. This is especially
dangerous when there is a kind of sequence of floods. When the
first flood would kind of bring it up, and the next flood will carry
it much, much beyond the area.
Also, there is kind of a natural as well as human-induced migration
of other types, like on the wheels of the trucks going from this
zone to that zone, and things like that. So what we find in Belarus,
and I'm sure the Ukrainian scholars find, is that the contamination
area grows slowly, but it grows. So that also affects the problem
of evacuation or non-evacuation because, apart from the tight exclusion
zone around the Chornobyl station itself, we have other
stains of radioactivity on the territory of Belarus to relatively high
degrees.
But you cannot just evacuate people from there firstly, because
it's very expensive. Second, because you have to provide these people
with something else, and new places. And, third, because it all
changes. You cannot move people, shift people all the time, all
around. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Thank you. One final question for all of you, or anyone
who would like to answer. Is there a mechanism in place which
would continuously monitor this possible migration? Some device at
the parameters of the effective zone which, if it is migrating outward,
for instance, at a rate of 50 feet a year, or 100 feet, the radioactivity
will be detected? It's certainly not contracting; instead, I
would think, it is expanding.
Amb. Martynov. Well, Mr. Chairman, we have at least two aspects
of effort here, of which I am aware. First, we have a monitoring
network in our territory, which observes the status of radioactivity
at each given moment. So, we would be in a position to detect
sizable change in this situation.