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By SERGEI SHARGORODSKY Associated Press Writer
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine has suspended a controversial program to settle wild horses, bears, deer and other animals in overgrown forests in the evacuated zone surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear plant.
The animals were to be brought into the 19-mile-radius ``exclusion zone'' to eat dry grasses to reduce the chance of forest fires that could disturb soil containing radiation and send up contaminated smoke.
Opponents said the program is not feasible and a waste of money, prompting the government to rethink the idea.
The exclusion zone was established after Chernobyl's reactor No. 4 exploded 13 years ago today, on April 26, 1986, in the world's worst nuclear accident. Towns and villages inside the zone were evacuated, although more than 600 people have since returned to their homes.
Forests, considered to be good protection against radiation, cover about 50 percent of the zone's territory. However, they suffer frequent fires, especially during the hot and often dry Ukrainian summer.
Most biologists agree there is no danger of radiation-related mutations among the imported animals, but opponents of the program have argued that their arrival may disrupt the ecological balance of local animals in the zone.
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