Wormwood Forest: A Natural History of Chernobyl

When the explosion ripped through the Number Four reactor complex that fateful day, spewing flames and chunks of burning, radioactive material into the air, one of the world’s worst nightmares was realized. As the news gradually seeped out of the USSR and the extent of the disaster was confirmed, it became clear how horribly wrong things had gone. Dozens died – two from the explosion and many more from radiation illness over the following months – while scores of additional people became ill with acute radiation sickness. The prognosis for Chernobyl and its environs – succinctly dubbed the Zone of Alienation – was grim.

But if fears of the Apocalypse and a lifeless, barren radioactive future have been constant companions of the nuclear age, twenty years later Chernobyl shows us a different view of the future. Not only have pockets of defiant local residents remained behind to survive and make a life in the Zone, the area surrounding Chernobyl has become Europe’s largest wildlife sanctuary, a flourishing – at times unearthly – wilderness teeming with large animals, many of them members of rare and endangered species. Like the forests, fields, and swamps of their unexpectedly inviting habitat, both the people and the animals are all radioactive. Cesium-137 is packed in their muscles and strontium-90 in their bones. But quite astonishingly, they are also thriving.

Donning dosimeter and protective gear, intrepid journalist Mary Mycio explored the world’s only radioactive wilderness to report on the long-term effects of the disaster. A vivid blend of reportage, popular science, and illuminating encounters that explode the myths of Chernobyl with facts that are at once beautiful and horrible, Wormwood Forest brings a remarkable land – and its people and animals – to life to tell a unique story of science, surprise, and suspense.