Part 1 of 2 Parts
Russian troops invaded the Chernobyl Exclusion zone in northern Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The closed nuclear power plant is undergoing cleanup and decommissioning after the nuclear disaster in 1986. The Russian seized the plant and took the staff hostage. Before the end of March, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that the Russian troops had pulled out and IAEA sent in experts to assess security and safety at Chernobyl.
It was a very stressful time for people around Chernobyl. On the day that the site was invaded by the Russians, Russian artillery was raining down shells on Kyiv where Tatiana Tugai lives. Even as her life if Kyiv was in danger, she thought about Chernobyl. Decades ago, she and a team of scientists had conducted groundbreaking research in the aftermath of the 1986 disaster there. That research still continues to be relevant in new ways even today.
The radioactively contaminated land around the ruins of Chernobyl has been managed and studied in the decades between the worst nuclear meltdown in history in 1986 and the Russian invasion. The most radioactive areas are covered by a stadium-sized steel and concrete sarcophagus. Unfortunately, the current war could still lead to leaks, new plumes of radioactive dust, or even worse. Ukrainian officials have reported that radiation levels increased follow the invasion and the IAEA is currently investigating whether Russian soldiers stationed Chernobyl experienced radiation poisoning during their occupation.
Since the 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, wildlife has adapted to life in the exclusion zone. This is the area around Chernobyl where visitor access is heavily restricted. It is one of the places on Earth where researchers can study the effects of radiation on nature. The researchers have made many discoveries including revelations about a particularly extraordinary kind of fungus.
In 1991, five years after the nuclear disaster, remotely piloted robots discovered a jet-black fungus growing on the inside of the Chernobyl reactors. Intrigued by the discovery of the strange fungus, microbiologists from the Kyiv Institute of Microbiology and Virology began visiting the area regularly.
Tugai wrote in an email, “The first impressions from my personal trips to the Chernobyl zone were very sad. The zone resembled frames from a science fiction film about a dead city. Empty houses without windows.” As the years passed, life began to return to the zone and “the closed exclusion zone gradually began to look like a nature reserve. Scientists constantly walked with a dosimeter, and it reminded us that radiation was nearby.”
Conditions were especially dangerous close to the remains of the damaged reactors. Tugai wrote, “It was only possible to be directly there for a very short period of time. Therefore, the first samples taken from the walls and water from the interior of the destroyed fourth block … were selected for further research.”
Tugai and a team led by Nelli Zhdanova found more than 200 fungal species at Chernobyl, including the jet-black fungi with melanin. Melanin is a pigment that influences the color of human and animal hair, skin, and eyes and can protect against ultraviolet light. At the Institute for Nuclear Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the scientists studied the new fungi’s ability to thrive in the presence extreme radiation.
Please read Part 2 next