From Chernobyl to Fukushima: Unlocking the effects of radiation on plants
How do plants grow and successfully reproduce in areas exposed to high levels of radiation? Scientists at the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, Slovakia, studied how native plants adapted near Chernobyl, the site of the worst nuclear accident in history. Northern Japan may benefit one day from this research.
Flax grows in a radioactive field. Photo courtesy Martin Hajduch.
The Chernobyl disaster
In 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine experienced a power surge that ruptured the reactor releasing radioactive material to the environment. At the time, scientists feared the region surrounding the power plant would be a wasteland. Twenty-five years after the disaster, plants grow.
Martin Hajduch, a plant biotechnology expert, first became interested in this area during his post-doctoral studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia. “Except in areas of extreme radiation, plants continued to grow at Chernobyl," he begins. This fact intrigued him.
He scoured the scientific literature to learn more about radiation effects on plants, especially in relation to the Chernobyl disaster. He found surprisingly little information. Hajduch decided to explore this area for his research at the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
Plants continue to thrive
Hajduch explains, “In our research, we try to unravel [a] long-standing mystery — how plants are able grow and successfully reproduce in radioactive Chernobyl.” Hajduch and his colleagues returned to this region in 2007. They sowed a local variety of flax seed in the radiation zone and in fields outside the zone of radiation as a control in the study.
Every year the team harvested the seeds from both fields. The researchers studied the seeds to determine how radiation stressed the plant’s signaling pathways, specifically the pathways responsible for protein development. “We use new technology called proteomics that is capable [of analyzing] hundreds of proteins in the sample," Hajduch continues. The scientists used the protein levels to evaluate the plant’s response to the radiation.
Hajduch’s research suggests that the radiation only affected a relatively small percentage of proteins in mature seeds. In addition, the seeds accumulated a very low amount of radiation, when compared to the stem or leaves of the plant.
Can humans return to the area around Chernobyl affected by the radiation? Not in the near term. “The area is still contaminated with long-living radioisotopes, including Strontium-90 and Cesium-137," Hajduch explains. These radioisotopes can still affect human health and development. “When these radioactive isotopes decay, the area will be again habitable."
The Japanese disaster
More recently, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and 30 foot tsunami devastated the northern regions of Honshu, Japan. The combined natural disasters set off a man-made disaster at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plan. The effects of the radiation released by the power plant remain unclear. It is natural to try to draw parallels between Chernobyl and Japan, but a direct comparison at this time is difficult.
Any nuclear accident is serious, but Hajduch remains hopeful. “Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is located near the ocean that might dilute the negative effects of the accident,” he says. Scientists around the world are still developing a complete picture of the Japanese radiation leak. Despite this outcome, Hajduch’s research lays the foundation scientists may use to understand the long-term effects of the Fukushima event on the environment.
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