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On April 26, 1986, a reactor exploded at the Soviet-run Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located some 90 kilometers north of Kyiv in Ukraine, killing 31 people immediately and another 15,000 over the next several years from radiation poisoning. In his appeal, Pope Leo warned about the risk of using increasingly powerful technologies. He expressed his hopes that discernment and responsible decision-making may be carried out regarding nuclear energy. “I hope that at all levels of decision-making, discernment and responsibility may always prevail, so that every use of atomic energy may be at the service of life and peace,” said the...

Ukraine is commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on Sunday amid lingering fears that Russia's 4-year-old war could spark a repeat of the world's worst nuclear disaster. "The Chernobyl disaster was the result of a reactor experiment ordered ⁠by Moscow, in violation of safety protocols, and followed by lies and cover-ups," Ukraine's foreign ministry said in a ⁠statement. "To this day, the world has to face consequences brought by a totalitarian system that subordinated truth and science to ideology and political power." Millions were exposed to radiation, hundreds ⁠of thousands forced to flee, and wide swaths of...

Once the epicenter of a catastrophic nuclear disaster, Chernobyl in Ukraine was left uninhabitable for humans. But in the silence that followed evacuation, nature began to reclaim the land. Przewalski's horses, once nearly extinct, now roam freely, grazing among overgrown buildings as forests reclaim old roads. Wolves, lynx, moose, and red deer have also returned, along with free-roaming dogs and even brown bears, a species absent from the region for more than a century. Still, the recovery is not without complications. Radiation remains an invisible presence, and scientists continue to observe its subtle but lasting effects, such as birds developing...

On April 26, 1986, Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat, Ukraine, exploded—a combination of poor reactor design and serious mismanagement had caused the worst nuclear disaster in human history. Fast forward 40 years, and things have changed. While the horrific death, illness, and environmental degradation caused by the meltdown will never be completely forgotten, the area surrounding Chernobyl has come to provide a rare scientific opportunity. Today, it is a living laboratory for scientists exploring questions (many of them genetic) regarding long-term exposure to high levels of radiation. Frogs, for example, have adapted darker skin colors to protect against radiation....

On April 26, 1986, Soviet engineers at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were conducting a safety test. Doomed by a fatal design flaw and pushed to the limit by human negligence, reactor 4 exploded amid an attempted shutdown during a routine procedure, setting off a chain of events that ultimately released radioactive material hundreds of times greater than that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima... While science has allowed us to understand the circumstances of the explosion itself, it has taken much more work to uncover the layers of mismanagement, negligence and misinformation that resulted in human suffering, ecological...

- What no one so far has talked about is that Chernobyl and that entire region - was once home to the important Chernobyl Hasidic community, and by 1897, its Jewish population reached 5,526 representing 59 per cent of the city...By 1939, 1,783 Jews lived in Chernobyl, one in every five residents of the town. The German army occupied the city on Aug. 25, 1941. On Nov. 7, 1941, almost half of Chernobyl’s Jews were shot. The rest were killed by the end of 1942. That history is practically absent from today’s memory... Today, the explosion of the nuclear plant...

We were newlyweds. We still walked around holding hands, even if we were just going to the store. I would say to him, "I love you." But I didn't know then how much. I had no idea… We lived in the dormitory of the fire station where he worked. There were three other young couples; we all shared a kitchen. On the ground floor they kept the trucks, the red fire trucks. That was his job. One night I heard a noise. I looked out the window. He saw me. "Close the window and go back to sleep. There's a...

Cladosporium sphaerospermum, cultured at the Coimbra University Hospital Centre in Portugal. (Rui Tomé/Atlas of Mycology, used with permission) The Chernobyl exclusion zone may be off-limits to humans, but ever since the Unit Four reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded nearly 40 years ago, other forms of life have not only moved in but survived, adapted, and appeared to thrive. Part of that may be the lack of humans… but for one organism, at least, the ionizing radiation lingering inside the reactor's surrounding structures may be an advantage. There, clinging to the interior walls of one of the most...

For decades, scientists have studied animals living in or near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant to see how increased levels of radiation affect their health, growth, and evolution. A study analyzed the DNA of 302 feral dogs living near the power plant, compared the animals to others living 10 miles away, and found remarkable differences. On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor in northern Ukraine—then part of the Soviet Union—exploded, sending a massive plume of radiation into the sky. Nearly four decades later, the Chernobyl Power Plant and many parts of the surrounding area remain uninhabited—by humans, at least....

Chernobyl nuclear power plant was hit by a Russian attack overnight, striking a protective shield over its destroyed fourth reactor, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. The structure, known as the New Safe Confinement, was built through international cooperation to contain the remnants of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. It was designed to prevent radiation leaks and safeguard the site and the broader area from environmental hazards. According to Ukraine’s president, the strike by a Russian attack drone carrying a high-explosive warhead damaged the dome, but the fire was extinguished, and radiation levels remained stable. The situation is being monitored to assess...

On Monday, Reuters reported on my discovery that Russia appears to be building the first launch facility for its experimental Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile, which the United States calls the SSC-X-9 Skyfall. The facility is nearly complete, suggesting that the new missile could soon enter service with Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces. There is a lot of hype surrounding the Burevestnik: US authorities have denounced Russia’s development of “radiation-emitting, nuclear-powered cruise missiles” and called the system a “flying Chernobyl.” Unlike conventional cruise missiles, which are powered by jet engines, the Burevestnik is powered by an unprotected nuclear reactor. This means it...

Mutant wolves roaming the deserted streets of Chernobyl appear to have developed resistance to cancer - raising hopes the findings can help scientists fight the disease in humans...

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit Egypt on Tuesday, 23 January, to join his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in laying the foundation of El-Dabaa, Egypt's first-ever nuclear power plant (NPP). Both Putin and Sisi will take part in an official ceremony of the final stage of pouring the concrete of the fourth reactor of Dabaa developed by the Russian state atomic energy corporation ROSATOM in Dabaa city, located in the Mediterranean Marsa Matrouh province, about 320 kilometres northwest of the capital Cairo, Egyptian news outlets reported. The long-awaited NPP, which will operate with a 120-megawatt capacity for...

More than 35 years after the world’s worst nuclear accident, the dogs of Chernobyl roam among decaying, abandoned buildings in and around the closed plant – somehow still able to find food, breed and survive. Scientists hope that studying these dogs can teach humans new tricks about how to live in the harshest, most degraded environments, too. They published the first of what they hope will be many genetics studies on Friday in the journal Science Advances, focusing on 302 free-roaming dogs living in an officially designated “exclusion zone” around the disaster site. They identified populations whose differing levels of...

Cleveland, Ohio, has informed city residents that their water is safe amid growing concerns about the environmental consequences from the derailment of a train hauling chemicals in the northeastern part of the state. In a statement, Cleveland Water notified residents that its drinking water comes from Lake Erie, which is “separate from the Ohio River and its watershed.” “There’s no indication that Lake Erie or its watershed have been impacted by the train derailment in East Palestine,” the department said in its statement. “The testing that we regularly perform would catch any changes to our source water should they arise.”...

Environment activist Erin Brockovich is calling on the Biden Administration to "step up" after a trail derailment in eastern Ohio led to a controlled release of toxic chemicals. On February 3, a train operated by Norfolk Southern Railway derailed near East Palestine, Ohio, and cause a major fire near the track. Around 20 of the 50 cars that derailed were transporting hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride, a toxic and flammable gas. Out of fear that the fire could cause an explosion, officials decided to conduct a controlled burn of hazardous materials, which began on February 6. However, the process still...

Norfolk Southern Railroad and the Environmental Protection Agency released a list of chemicals and hazardous materials on Sunday carried by a train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. The derailment, which occurred on February 3, caused a fire that lasted several days. Officials decided to initiate a controlled release of the chemicals to mitigate the risk of an explosion; all residents within one mile of the crash site were told to evacuate, although they were permitted to return to their homes on February 8. Norfolk Southern provided the EPA with a list of cars affected by the crash and the...

The impact of the acute exposure to high doses of radiation was severe for the environment and the human population. But more than three decades after the accident, Chernobyl has become one of the largest nature reserves in Europe. A diverse range of endangered species finds refuge there today, including bears, wolves, and lynxes. As with other pollutants, radiation could be a very strong selective factor, favouring organisms with mechanisms that increase their survival in areas contaminated with radioactive substances. After detecting the first black frogs in 2016, we decided to study the role of melanin colouration in Chernobyl wildlife....

t was the fall of 1986, some six months after the catastrophic Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explosion, and a group of soldiers suited up to enter the radiation-riddled site. Their task: Clean hundreds of tons of expelled, highly radioactive, nuclear fuel from rooftops near the reactor. Dressed in what appears to be foul-weather gear, one of the young men cinches his gloves and tightens the drawstring of his hoodie to shield his cheeks. Another slips a .1-inch-thick piece of lead, thinner than the protective coverings provided for dental X-rays, over his back. Some insert the sheets inside their undershorts, creating...

As the staging ground for an assault on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, one of the most toxic places on earth, was probably not the best choice. But that did not seem to bother the Russian generals who took over the site in the early stages of the war. “We told them not to do it, that it was dangerous, but they ignored us,” Valeriy Simyonov, the chief safety engineer for the Chernobyl nuclear site, said in an interview. Apparently undeterred by safety concerns, the Russian forces tramped about the grounds with bulldozers and tanks, digging...