Radionuclides seeping into drinking water (04/21/96)

Radionuclides seeping into drinking water

KYIV - The Dnipro River basin, which supplies two-thirds of Ukraine's 52 million people with daily drinking water, is being markedly affected by particles of plutonium, cesium and strontium seeping into the water table from contaminated soil near the site of the Chornobyl nuclear accident, the Associated Press reported on April 3.

The wetlands and marshes of the Prypiat River, the largest right-bank Dnipro tributary, have absorbed large amounts of plutonium and other radioactive elements over the past decade, said the report. And, although expelled in lesser quantities than the other elements, the plutonium, with a half-life of 25,000 years, poses the most long-lasting hazard.

According to Greenpeace Ukraine member Hanna Tsvetkova, a nuclear specialist, "The migration of radionuclides out of the [30 - kilometer 'dead'] zone is the most complex and burning issue" in dealing with Chornobyl-related contamination.

The AP report also explained that the past winter's heavier than normal snowfalls and resultant severe spring floods are causing significant amounts of radionuclides to travel far past the areas originally contaminated by plutonium, cesium, strontium and other radioactive elements.

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