Fires at Chernobyl. Did anyone measure the radiation recently?

["Cuttler, Jerry" <CuttlerJ@spkb.candu.aecl.ca>]

Has anyone measured the radiation dose rate distribution in the evacuated
areas recently?  How does it compare with the background in Denver?
I would have expected a considerable reduction in the radiation field around 

Chernobyl after 10 years.
Jerry Cuttler
 ----------
From: radsafe
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Fires at Chernibyl
Date: Tuesday, April 23, 1996 1:28PM

Wire story says that one or more of the abandoned cities in the "heavily
contaminated region" (by which I presume the 10 km region) is burning "out
of
control" and releasing "radioactivity".

Anyone know anything more? -- please REPLY DIRECTLY (JMOULDER@ITS.MCW.EDU)
even if you also reply to the list, because I've got digest mode turned on
and
media inquiries to deal with.

On the surface the story seems plausible.  There are abandoned cities/
villages, and they could still be contaminated.  A fire would lift some of
that contamination into the air.  A big fire could spread it quite a ways.

I think that the remaining contamination would be mostly cesium-137 (and
some
134), strontium-90, and plutonium isotopes.