Results from two GPR surveys (2002 and 2015) in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

Two GPR surveys were conducted, the first one in May 2002 and the second one in September 2015, in a 100×200 m
²
area situated 2 km away from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Their purpose was to characterize the first 3 meters of the underground that has been devastated in the “cleaning” process that took place in the first year following the nuclear accident. These data contain many clear diffraction hyperbolas related to buried debris such as dead pine tree trunks. We determine an interface between the disturbed sandy soil and the original sand of alluvial and aeolian genesis. When possible the depth variations of this interface is successfully compared to the limits determined from observations and gamma-ray loggings performed into a hundred shallow boreholes drilled within this area. In the 2015 data, new waste burial trench limits are determined north of the previous studied trench.