Abstract
This Perspective highlights the lingering consequences of nuclear disasters by examining the risks posed by wildfires that rerelease radioactive fallout originally deposited into the environment by accidents at nuclear power plants or testing of nuclear weapons. Such wildfires produce uncontainable, airborne, and hazardous smoke, which potentially carries radioactive material, thus becoming the specter of the original disaster. As wildfires occur more frequently with climate change and land use changes, nuclear wildfires present a pressing yet little discussed problem among wildfire management and fire scholars. The problem requires urgent attention due to the risks it poses to the health and wellbeing of wildland firefighters, land stewards, and smoke-impacted communities. This Perspective explains the problem, outlines future research directions, suggests potential solutions, and underlines the broader benefits of mitigating the risks.
Highlights
Organic carbon-rich soil surface horizons, such as the Chernozems common in the region contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster [6,7,8], may burn intensely during dry seasons, becoming a serious potential source for smoke and hot particles
Given the half-lives of certain radioisotopes, this problem will not disappear in the lifetimes of all living generations [4]
Wildfires becoming the specter of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster is an extreme but not a standalone example of a significant yet little discussed problem of the Anthropocene—an epoch where anthropogenic disasters interact with earth system processes to produce unpredictable and, at times, unmanageable events [12,13]. This includes sites of nuclear accidents as well as atomic bombings and former nuclear weapons test sites. Another well-known example is the area contaminated by the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster in Japan [14]
Summary
Organic carbon-rich soil surface horizons, such as the Chernozems common in the region contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster [6,7,8], may burn intensely during dry seasons, becoming a serious potential source for smoke and hot particles. In an era where the linked effects of climate change and land management practices are increasing the frequency, intensity, and scope of wildfires internationally [9], smoke in general, and from radioactively contaminated sites in particular, poses a risk to wildland firefighters, land stewards, and smoke-impacted communities alike [3,10,11].
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