After the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the surrounding region became one of the most radioactive places on Earth. Humans left—but wildlife stayed. Scientists have since documented deformities, genetic ...

On April 26, 1986, Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukraine—then part of the Soviet Union—exploded, sending a massive plume of radiation into the sky. Forty years later, the ...