Fukushima nuclear plant’s exclusion zone overtaken by wild animals

Fox News ^ | 1/9/2020 | Christopher Carbone

[Pontiac]

The 2011 earthquake and tsunami that caused Fukushima's nuclear plant to melt down prompted the Japanese goverment to evacuate a huge area as dangerous radiation spread.

The evacuated region, which was carved up into several zones based on how the radiation spread, has become home for a wide range of wild animals that apparently found a way to thrive amid the desolation despite the radiation.

“Over time, some wildlife species have responded favorably to the absence of humans, even in the presence of high radiation levels, resulting in a rewilding of the evacuation zones,” Thomas Hinton, a radioecologist at the Institute of Environmental Radioactivity at Fukushima University who worked on the study, told Earther.

Researchers set up cameras in all of the zones. They were able to collect more than 267,000 images over the course of two 60-day periods, providing a unique glimpse of animals roaming the Fukushima countryside -- including feral hogs, monkeys and a fox.

[marktwain]

The current operational theory is that there is no threshold limit for radiation exposure that causes damaging effects to health.

That is the theory.

There is very little to no evidence it is true.

[Tucker39]

Verrrrry Interrrresting. Thanx.

[beaversmom]

Saw a good, sweet program re the animals of Chernobyl. Nature seems to find a way.

Life in the Dead Zone
https://youtu.be/IEmms6vn-p8

[Pontiac]

This is a good one

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/radioactive-wolves-introduction/7108/

Wolves of Chernobyl

[Pontiac]

Ping

[JoeRender]

Hehehe. :)