Chernobyl fears resurface as river dredging begins in exclusion zone
udf.byAn aerial view of the Pripyat River within the 30km Chernobyl exclusion zone. Photograph: Minden Pictures/Alamy Stock Photo Scientists warn of threat of nuclear contamination from work on giant E40 waterway linking Baltic to the Black Sea The river running past the Chernobyl nuclear reactor is being dredged to create an inland shipping route, potentially resurfacing radioactive sludge from the 1986 disaster that could contaminate drinking water for 8 million people in Ukraine, scientists and conservationists have warned.
The dredging of the Pripyat began in July and is part of an international project to create the 2,000km (1,240-mile) long E40 waterway linking the Baltic and Black seas, passing through Poland, Belarus and Ukraine.