Forty years on from nuclear disaster

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Science

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2026

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For 40 years scientists have been fascinated by the exclusion zone surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. Professor Jim Smith from the University of Portsmouth is one of those scientists, a frequent visitor over the past 20 years. He joins Inside Science to explain whether the region still suffers after the nuclear fallout and how how it has shaped European energy production.

It is a month for anniversaries, and with David Attenborough turning 100, each week we take a look at a species which has found itself named after the behavioural ecologist.

And finally, the latest science news in the world of astronomy brought to you by astronomer Dr Jeni Millard.

Transcript

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1:03.0	You see wildlife taking over, you see trees growing around, you see artificial stalactites. So the concrete of the building is gradually kind of wearing away around the big apartment buildings,
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