Tag Archive for 'Chernobyl'

Zoning of contaminated territory of Ukraine according to current and field study plot. Image credit: Smith et al., doi: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2025.107698.

Vast Areas of Chornobyl-Affected Farmland in Ukraine Can Now Be Safely Farmed, Scientists Claim

May 5, 2025 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United Kingdom and Ukraine has developed a new method for the safe reassessment of farmland abandoned after the Chornobyl...

Radiologically contaminated sites such as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone have created novel environmental stressors with the potential to substantially influence the ecology of organisms and wider ecosystem function. Nevertheless, radiation dose rates at which negative effects occur are uncertain. Burrows et al investigated a potential mechanism for these sub-lethal consequences by testing whether radiation exposure makes bees less metabolically efficient. Image credit: Josef Pichler.

Chernobyl-Level Radiation Exposure Increases Bumblebees’ Appetite for Nectar

Dec 12, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of Stirling and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in the UK has demonstrated that simulated Chernobyl-levels...

Ten mammalian and five bird species were documented scavenging fish carcasses in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone including Eurasian otters (Lutra lutra). Image credit: Schlichting et al, doi: 10.1016/j.fooweb.2018.e00107.

Wildlife is Abundant in Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Confirms New Study

Feb 4, 2019 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Food Webs provides additional evidence that wildlife is abundant in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, a large area of...

Chernobyl disaster aftermath: reactor 4 (center), turbine building (lower left) and reactor 3 (center right).

New Study Rewrites First Seconds of Chernobyl Accident

Nov 21, 2017 by News Staff

According to an analysis published in the journal Nuclear Technology, the first of the two major explosions reported by eyewitnesses of the Chernobyl disaster...

A pack of gray wolves visits a scent station in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The photograph was taken by one of the remote camera stations and was triggered by the wolves’ movement. Image credit: Sarah Webster / Jim Beasley / National Geographic.

Camera Study Reveals Wildlife Abundance in Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

Apr 19, 2016 by News Staff

New research published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment documents animal species prevalent in the human-free Chernobyl Exclusion...

A family of moose roams free in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Image credit: Valeriy Yurko / Polesie State Radioecological Reserve.

Researchers Discover Abundant Populations of Wildlife in Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

Oct 6, 2015 by News Staff

In 1986, after a catastrophic nuclear accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union released radioactive particles into the environment,...

A hawfinch, Coccothraustes coccothraustes, from the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Image credit: T.A. Mousseau / A.P. Møller.

Birds in Chernobyl Adapting to Ionizing Radiation, Finds Study

Apr 29, 2014 by News Staff

A new study, reported in the journal Functional Ecology and headed by Dr Ismael Galván from the Spanish National Research Council, is the first evidence...