The group published a map with information gathered on Monday, which shows that the areas contaminated with nuclear radiation suffer from over 20 fires and that at least three of them are affecting the highly contaminated forests of Bryansk.

The Chernobyl catastrophe, which took place on April 26th, 1986, in Ukraine, is considered the most serious nuclear accident in the history of humankind. The explosion of a nuclear reactor in Chernobyl affected vast areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, depositing large amounts of radioactive traces in this region.

Although Russian authorities acknowledged the risk represented by the fires in contaminated areas, they tried to minimize the issue, saying that the fires were being controlled. This was done as a way to reduce the criticism over how they are dealing with this disaster

“Fires on these territories will without a doubt lead to an increase in radiation,” said Vladimir Chuprov, head of the energy program at Greenpeace Russia, according to The New York Times.

Other environmentalist groups have also expressed their concern over this issue. They say that the smoke will spread radioactivity to other areas, where people will breathe it as smog.

Photo: www.greenpeace.org/russia/