The Belarusian Department for Nuclear and Radiation Safety said at a press conference on Earth Day that 39 years after the April 26, 1986, Chernobyl disaster, “60% of cesium-137 and 62% of strontium-90 have decayed.” Yekaterina Shmeleva, the Deputy Head of the Department, reported that the “area of radioactive contamination” includes about 12% of the country’s territory — some 9,600 square miles — an area bigger that either Vermont (9,249 sq mi), New Hampshire (8,969), Massachusetts (7,838) or New Jersey (7,419). Shmeleva reported that the 1,859 settlements in the “zones of radioactive contamination” have a population of about 930,000, including 181,000 children. Belta reported that Shmeleva “urged [the public] to carefully choose the places for summer foraging and to do radiation control of mushrooms and berries.” Left unsaid was that it takes thirty years for cesium-137 to decay by half, and that it will not decay completely for another 261 years — until the year 2286. In their 2006 study “The Other Chernobyl Report,” Ian Fairlie and David Sumner note that, “particularly large areas of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia were contaminated with high levels of radioactivity.” — Belarusian Telegraph Agency (Belta), April 22, 2025
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