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The secretariat of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) released a White Paper evaluating thyroid cancer data in regions affected by the Chernobyl accident to guide the Scientific Committee’s future programme of work.

Ionizing radiation has been shown to produce negative effects on organisms, although little is known about its ecological and evolutionary effects. As a study model, we isolated bacteria associated with feathers from barn swallows Hirundo rustica from three study areas around Chernobyl differing in background ionizing radiation levels and one control study site in Denmark. Each bacterial community was exposed to four different γ radiation doses ranging from 0.46 to 3.96 kGy to test whether chronic exposure to radiation had selected for resistant bacterial strains. 

It is 30 years since the beginning of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. It is also five years since the Fukushima disaster began.

Following the 1986 Chernobyl accident, 116,000 people were permanently evacuated from the 4,200 km Chernobyl exclusion zone. There is continuing scientific and public debate surrounding the fate of wildlife that remained in the abandoned area. Several previous studies of the Chernobyl exclusion zone indicated major radiation effects and pronounced reductions in wildlife populations at dose rates well below those thought to cause significant impacts. In contrast, our long-term empirical data showed no evidence of a negative influence of radiation on mammal abundance.

In 1986, an explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant led to the single worst nuclear accident in history.

This 2013 report published by Blacksmith Institute and Green Cross Switzerland presents a new list of the top ten polluted places in the world and also provides updates on the sites published in the previous editions.

One impact of Japan's nuclear crisis is a dim but definite echo of Chernobyl, says Jim Smith — decades of caesium-137.

Fukushima is the latest spur for the campaign against the ambitious Kudankulum project in Tamil Nadu. Read this report on the sociology and politics of the 25-year old struggle and the status of nuclear eanergy a year after Fukushima.

The Chernobyl accident represents a long-term experiment on the effects of exposure to ionizing radiation at the ecosystem level.

It is now possible to discriminate between cancers caused by intake of a radioactive material and those that arise spontaneously

Recently, scientists from the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen have identified a genetic change in thyroid cancer as a signature or fingerprint that points to a previous exposure of the thyroid to ionizing radiation.

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