From: Gary Britt 

Maybe whole new strains of radioactive resistant wildlife will develop.
Maybe Chernobyl is God's way of making sure some wildlife survives the end
times. 

Gary

Rich Gauszka wrote:
> "Our studies show that a dynamic ecosystem is present in even the most
> radioactive habitats,"
>
> or
>
> "From every rock we turn over, we find consequences,"
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070607/ap_on_re_eu/chernobyl_wildlife_4;_ylt=AiK
0XmmLlgEfPElfQS5olKhkM3wV
>
>
> PARISHEV, Ukraine - Two decades after an explosion and fire at the
> Chernobyl nuclear power plant sent clouds of radioactive particles
> drifting over the fields near her home, Maria Urupa says the wilderness
> is encroaching. Packs of wolves have eaten two of her dogs, the
> 73-year-old says, and wild boar trample through her cornfield. And she
> says fox, rabbits and snakes infest the meadows near her tumbledown
> cottage.
>
> I've seen a lot of wild animals here," says Urupa, one of about 300
> mostly elderly residents who insist on living in Chernobyl's
> contaminated evacuation zone.
>
> The return of wildlife to the region near the world's worst nuclear
> power accident is an apparent paradox that biologists are trying to
> measure and understand.
>
> Many assumed the 1986 meltdown of one reactor, and the release of
> hundreds of tons of radioactive material, would turn much of the
> 1,100-square-mile evacuated area around Chernobyl into a nuclear dead zone.
>
> It certainly doesn't look like one today.
>
> Dense forests have reclaimed farm fields and apartment house courtyards.
> Residents, visitors and some biologists report seeing wildlife —
> including moose and lynx — rarely sighted in the rest of Europe. Birds
> even nest inside the cracked concrete sarcophagus shielding the
> shattered remains of the reactor.
>
> Wildlife has returned despite radiation levels in much of the evacuated
> zone that remain 10 to 100 times higher than background levels,
> according to a 2005 U.N. report — though they have fallen significantly
> since the accident, due to radioactive decay.
>
> Some researchers insist that by halting the destruction of habitat, the
> Chernobyl disaster helped wildlife flourish. Others say animals may be
> filtering into the zone, but they appear to suffer malformations and
> other ills.
>
> Both sides say more research is needed into the long-term health of a
> variety of Chernobyl's wildlife species, as governments around the world
> consider switching from fossil fuel plants, blamed for helping drive
> global climate change, to nuclear power.
>
> Biologist Robert J. Baker of Texas Tech University was one of the first
> Western scientists to report that Chernobyl had become a wildlife haven.
> He says the mice and other rodents he has studied at Chernobyl since the
> early 1990s have shown remarkable tolerance for elevated radiation levels.
>
> But Timothy Mousseau of the University of South Carolina, a biologist
> who studies barn swallows at Chernobyl, says that while wild animals
> have settled in the area, they have struggled to build new populations.
>
> Far from thriving, he says, a high proportion of the birds he and his
> colleagues have examined suffer from radiation-induced sickness and
> genetic damage. Survival rates are dramatically lower for those living
> in the most contaminated areas.
>
> In explaining their starkly differing views, Baker and Mousseau
> criticize each other's studies as poorly designed.
>
> But their disagreement also reflects a deeper split among biologists who
> study the effects of exposure to radiation. Some, like Baker, think
> organisms can cope with the destructive effects of radiation up to a
> point — beyond which they begin to suffer irreparable damage. Others
> believe that even low doses of radiation can trigger cancers and other
> illnesses.
>
> In the Journal of Mammology in 1996, Baker and his colleagues reported
> that the disaster had not reduced either the diversity or abundance of a
> dozen species of rodents — including mice, shrews, rats and weasels —
> near the Chernobyl plant.
>
> "Our studies show that a dynamic ecosystem is present in even the most
> radioactive habitats," they wrote.
>
> Baker's group reported sighting red fox, gray wolf, moose, river otter,
> roe deer, Russian wild boar and brown hare within a six-mile radius of
> the plant — the most heavily contaminated area.
>
> Genetic tests showed Chernobyl's animals suffered some damage to their
> DNA, Baker and his colleagues reported. But they said overall it didn't
> seem to hurt wildlife populations.
>
> "The resulting environment created by the Chernobyl disaster is better
> for animals," Baker told the Associated Press in a phone interview.
>
> Critics point out that Baker's work has been funded by the U.S.
> Department of Energy, which some view as pro-nuclear. Baker defended the
> government connection, saying, "We have never been asked to come up with
> any specific conclusions, just do honest work." He also said his work
> has been peer-reviewed.
>
> Mousseau and his colleagues have painted a far more pessimistic picture.
>
> In the journal Biology Letters in March, a group led by Anders Moller,
> from Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, said that in a study of
> 7,700 birds examined since 1991 they found 11 rare or unknown
> abnormalities in a population of Chernobyl's barn swallows.
>
> Roughly one-third of 248 Chernobyl nestlings studied were found to have
> ill-formed beaks, albino feathers, bent tail feathers and other
> malformations. Mousseau was a co-author of the report.
>
> In other studies, Mousseau — whose work is funded by the
> National Science Foundation and
> National Geographic Society — and his colleagues have found increased
> genetic damage, reduced reproductive rates and what he calls
> "dramatically" higher mortality rates for birds living near Chernobyl.
>
> The work suggests, he said, that Chernobyl is a "sink" where animals
> migrate but rapidly die off. Mousseau suspects that relatively low-level
> radiation reduces the level of antioxidants in the blood, which can lead
> to cell damage.
>
> "From every rock we turn over, we find consequences," he told the
> Associated Press in a phone interview. "These reports of wildlife
> flourishing in the area are completely anecdotal and have no scientific
> basis."
>
> While the experts debate, Maria Urupa, harvests tomatoes from her
> garden, buys fish from the nearby Pripyat River and brews moonshine vodka.
>
> Eating locally produced food is risky, health experts agree, because
> plants and animals can concentrate radioactive materials as they cycle
> through the food chain. Doe she fear the effects of her exposure to
> radiation?
>
> "Radiation? No!" she said. "What humans do? Yes."

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5