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nuclear contamination

Chernobyl Is Not the Only Nuclear Threat Russia’s Invasion Has Sparked in Ukraine

The potential for fires in the “Red Forest” still tainted by radioactive fallout from the 1986 meltdown, and 15 reactors running elsewhere in the country, pose greater risks.

By Michael Kodas

In Chernobyl, a Ukrainian technician in 1998 checked a spot with a Geiger counter in the forest outside the damaged nuclear plant, which burned in a wildfire in 1992, six year after the worst nuclear accident in history. The fire burned 667 acres. As a consequence, the radioactive fallout was released in smoke aerosols and transported various distances while radioactive ashes remained on the site. Credit: Patrick Landmann/Getty Images.

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