LONDON (Reuters) – Some 30 years after the world’s worst nuclear accident blasted radiation across Chernobyl, the site has evolved from a disaster zone into a nature reserve, teeming with elk, deer and wolves, scientists said yesterday.
The remarkable turnaround in the area, which was declared a permanent no-go zone for people after the accident in 1986, suggests radiation contamination is not hindering wildlife from breeding and thriving, but underscores the negative impact humans have on populations of wild mammals.
“When humans are removed, nature flourishes – even in the wake of the world’s worst nuclear accident,” said Jim Smith, a specialist in earth and environmental sciences at Britain’s University of Portsmouth. “It’s very likely that wildlife numbers at Chernobyl are now much higher than they were before the accident.”
After a fire and explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 threw clouds of radioactive particles into the air, thousands of people left the area, never to return.
Smith and co-researchers took the opportunity to see what happens to wildlife in an area where contamination is heavy but people are largely absent.
