After the fallout

The exclusion zone around Chernobyl is a dangerous, bleak, post-apocalyptic wasteland of scarred landscapes and abandoned buildings, visited only by scientists and intrepid urban explorer types armed with cameras - right? Not so, as the BBC's Victoria Gill reports.

Contrary to popular belief, the level of radiation is generally low, much of the vegetation has recovered from the effects of the 1986 blast and perhaps most surprisingly wildlife is actually thriving in a natural environment unimpacted by human activity.

However, that state of affairs is under threat because the boundaries of the exclusion zone are set to be redrawn, with scientists acknowledging that much of the area is now safe to return to. Indeed, the biggest impediment to making the change is not radiation itself but what Professor Jim Smith refers to as "radiation blight" - people's deeply ingrained fear of radiation, which has its own direct and indirect effects on health. The physical fallout may be receding into the past, but the psychological fallout remains.