Fungi on Chernobyl The walls at Chernobyl are being covered by a strange fungus that actually eats and grows on radiation. In 1986, the reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were undergoing routine testing when something went terribly wrong. In what has been described as the worst nuclear accident in history, two explosions blew the roof off one of the plant’s reactors and the entire area and its surroundings was covered in enormous amounts of radiation making it unfit for human life. Five years after the disaster, the walls of the Chernobyl reactor began to be covered by an unusual fungus. Scientists were pretty confused by how the fungus could survive in an area that had been so heavily tainted with radiation. They finally figured out that not only was it able to survive the radioactive environment, but the fungus actually seemed to thrive on it. Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Zone of Alienation also know as the Exclusion Zone around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor established by the USSR soon after the 1986 disaster. According to a report by Fox News, it took another ten years for researchers to test the fungus and discover that it […]
Reading Time: < 1 minute
