Culture

No, Fukushima Is Not a Wildlife Haven—and Neither Is Chernobyl

A slew of new research reveals the deleterious effects of radiation on Fukushima's ecology.
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Perhaps you've encountered the well-publicized idea that Chernobyl, the world’s worst nuclear disaster of 1986, has become a kind of 'wildlife haven' as a result of its abandonment by humans.

So what of Fukushima Daiichi, Japan's nuclear collapse of 2011—might we expect a happy menagerie there, too? Not so much, according to a slew of new papers out in the Journal of Heredity. And you may want to rethink Chernobyl-as-Eden, too.