Are radioactive wildfires next on California’s apocalyptic climate-change guest list?

Scientists are just beginning to understand the threat posed to humans and animals by this wildfire smoke. A study in New Mexico found that mice exposed to smoke for a prolonged period from a wildfire 600 miles away showed signs of age-related chemical changes in their brain tissue.

And there’s yet another possible hazard that has been largely unaccounted for in the smoke released from wildfires — radiation.

In April 2020, the forest surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster site in Ukraine sparked into a raging wildfire. More than 115,000 acres burned in 10 days, and the smoke — along with radiation — traveled 1,000 miles to countries as far as Norway.

The nuclear power plant at Chernobyl exploded in 1986 and most of the radiation released was contained in the dense forest surrounding the reactor. Many of the heavier radioactive isotopes left behind in the disaster have properties similar to those of potassium and calcium — elements essential to cell growth — and this eased their absorption into the forests.

A study on radioisotope behavior during forest fires in 2003 by Ukrainian radiologist Vasyl Yoschenko found that huge amounts of isotopes are released by “blasts of smoke and heat.” He went on to note, “in just one hour, the firefighters could have been exposed to more than triple the annual radiation limit for Chernobyl’s nuclear workers.”

Though the risk may be remote that California may be similarly impacted, the possibility adds another wrinkle to how climate change is changing our world in 2022 and beyond.

This summer, after learning about the Chernobyl fires, I became curious on the potential effects of radiation stemming from wildfires on our populations. As part of my internship at DoseNet, a UC Berkeley science initiative for high school students, I began an investigation using data from the program’s worldwide network of radiation sensors.

The United States hasn’t experienced a nuclear disaster on the level of Chernobyl, but there may be other sources of radiation that could have been absorbed by the West Coast’s forests.

More than 1,000 atomic bombs were tested by the U.S. during the Cold War, which released radioisotopes into the atmosphere, and there are also naturally occurring isotopes such as potassium-40, carbon-14 and uranium-238.

In 1959, there was a partial nuclear reactor meltdown at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County. The release, which was swept under the rug for decades, may have released 240 times more radiation than the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979. Former Santa Susana workers and nearby residents filed numerous lawsuits over the accident, and the site is still being cleaned up.

And California still has one nuclear power plant in operation, Diablo Canyon in San Luis Obispo County, though it is scheduled to be shut down in the next decade.

So, it’s not inconceivable that there could more accidental radiation releases or more past events waiting to be revealed.

I began my research by averaging hourly radiation counts and air particle data for specific time frames during major fires and observed a common pattern. During time periods with unhealthy air quality, radiation levels increased. These radiation counts increased even further with worsening air quality, indicating that there is radiative material in smoke from forest fires.

The results showed that West Coast forests do contain radiation, which is being released into the atmosphere in the form of particulate matter in the smoke. With more fires, more of this radiation will be released into our air.

Thankfully, my observations found that radiation levels in California during these fires was within the range of naturally occurring background levels. However, the long-term health effect of radiation from forest fires is an open question.

Humans are exposed to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight every day, which we know can damage our skin.

The radioactive gamma rays being released from smoke particles are much stronger than the sun’s rays, and in high enough doses, gamma radiation can cause cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

Although the long-term dangers associated with gamma ray exposure from wildfires are still unknown, what is known is that our state and our forests are burning at an unprecedented rate due to climate change. This will only get worse in the years ahead.

While radiation levels from forest fires appear to be safe now, why risk it? Let’s do what we can to mitigate climate change to save the environment and avoid adding wildfire radioactive isotopes to our list of apocalyptic concerns.

Ethan Fang is a senior at Castro Valley High School with an interest in data science and computational medicine.