Chernobyl radiation still present in Ukrainian food

 Kiev (AP):

Greenpeace said yesterday that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are still eating food contaminated by radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion a quarter-century after the blast.

In a report, the environmental group said samples of milk, berries, potatoes and root vegetables in two Ukrainian regions show unacceptably high levels of the radioactive isotope, cesium-137, from the 1986 blast. The regions are in northwestern Ukraine, outside the so-called "exclusion zone" around the plant, where residency is generally prohibited.

Greenpeace researcher Iryna Labunska criticised the government for halting counter-radiation measures in the regions two years ago. Those measures included supplying uncontaminated hay for dairy cattle.

Ukrainian government officials were not immediately available for comment.

A reactor at the plant exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing a cloud of radiation over much of the Northern Hemisphere. A zone of about 30-kilometre (19-mile) radius around the plant was declared uninhabitable, although some plant workers still live there for short periods and a few hundred other people have returned, despite government encouragement to stay away.