Joint Research Centre
Dataset Description
Due to abnormally hot, dry and windy weather, forest wildfires broke out in Ukraine about 3/5 April 2020 in a territory still heavily contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident. These wildfires reached the exclusion zone and the surrounding environment (about 1 km) of the nuclear power plant from April 8, 2020 and they are up to now the biggest fires ever recorded in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.
This event was of major interest due to the fact that since 1986, the forests have accumulated radioactivity, mostly concentrated in the wood and upper soil layers and, because of the fire haze these particles could be resuspended into the air and transported over long distances. Indeed the press reported detection of a small increase of cesium-137 concentrations in the air in Kiev, Germany, Norway, Greece and other countries. The EURDEP network also detected a slight increase of gamma dose rate with respect to the background in the proximity of the fire.
This dataset reports the concentration samples measurements collected by the EURDEP network during those days.
Publisher name: Joint Research Centre
Publisher URL: https://commission.europa.eu/about/departments-and-executive-agencies/joint-research-centre
Last updated: 2026-04-20T03:09:14Z
