Forest fire threatens Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear zone

Updated: 2015-04-29 11:36

(Agencies)

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.