Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Chernobyl has re-entered the global media cycle as the now six-week-old Fukushima nuclear disaster unfolds in its shadow, a comparison which AFP reports are "different in nature" according to Japanese officials.
Above is a panoramic view of Prypyat, which housed 50,000 people prior to the meltdown. Situated in the middle of a Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, which is roughly the size of Yosemite National Park, Prypyat became open to tourism this January as the Ukranian government now allows highly restrictive visits to the ghost city.
As Henry Shukman of Outside magazine wrote in his pre-Fukushima visit to the exclusion zone, the long-term impact of a meltdown is potentially far deeper than an evacuation:
"On the surface, Igor [Igor Chizhevky, a biologist who for 17 years has been studying the metabolization of cesium and strontium by animal life inside the zone] says, the wildlife seems to be thriving, but under the fur and hide, the DNA of most species has become unstable. They've eaten a lot of food contaminated with cesium and strontium. Even though the animals look fine, there are differences at the chromosomal level in every generation, as yet mostly invisible. But some have started to show: there are bird populations with freakishly high levels of albinism, with 20 percent higher levels of asymmetry in their feathers, and higher cancer rates. There are strains of mice with resistance to radioactivity—meaning they've developed heritable systems to repair damaged cells. Covered in radioactive particles after the disaster, one large pine forest turned from green to red: seedlings from this Red Forest placed in their own plantation have grown up with various genetic abnormalities. They have unusually long needles, and some grow not as trees but as bushes. The same has happened with some birch trees, which have grown in the shape of large, bushy feathers, without a recognizable trunk at all."
(Flickr/Pedro Moura Pinheiro)
