A group of endangered wild horses that were threatened to extinction from the radiation exposure.
Can Chernobyl be saved?
In the years following the massive release of radiation onto the environment scientist monitored the affected areas as the levels of radiation decreased slowly due to radionuclide decay. Roughly only a 30 kilometer radius surrounding the nuclear power plant had any major damage that could be considered devastating and take hundreds of years produce a livable environment again. The surrounding forest outside of Chernobyl did have higher mortality rates for both plants and animals and have reproductive losses but the environmental recovery processes have increased due to the removal of human interaction with the recovering environment. In reaction to the removal of humans some animal populations in the area have eventually expanded from there smaller populations since the explosion. Scientists say it will take decades more before the biome reaches the state it held before the disaster but they are optimistic that with time the environment can fully recover as the radioactive isotopes continue to decay.
|