The Mystery of Chernobyl

Two scientific studies on the biosphere around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant lead to different conclusions. Be aware, there are some errors in this article. The author has given the radioactive half-lives of cesium-137 and strontium-90 as 30,000 and 29,000 years, respectively, instead of 30 and 29 years.

The rule of thumb is that after 7 to 10 half-lives, a radioactive species is essentially gone, depending on the amount of initial activity, which in this case, could be significant. In any case, radioisotopes of plutonium will be a concern for many thousands of years.

I found it interesting that one of the studies talks about the importance of antioxidants as a defense from radiation exposure. That certainly makes sense to me.