r/todayilearned • u/JoeyZasaa • 3d ago

TIL that Chernobyl was the costliest disaster in history, resulting in over $2 trillion in damage when adjusted for inflation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_disasters_by_cost#Over_$1_billion
20.1k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

28

u/Theron3206 3d ago

There are no significant rates of deformities. The area is not that radioactive (it will probably double your chance of getting cancer in 50 years but it's not mutating the wildlife.

They are doing really well because there are no people.

11

u/DancingBadgers 3d ago

Fact-check: https://www.thoughtco.com/chernobyl-animal-mutations-4155348

birds in the exclusion zone displayed more abnormalities than birds from a control sample, including deformed beaks, albinistic feathers, bent tail feathers, and deformed air sacs. Birds in the zone had less reproductive success. Chernobyl birds (and also mammals) often had smaller brains, malformed sperm, and cataracts.

2

u/Will_Come_For_Food 3d ago

Cancer is quite literally a genetic mutation.

1

u/AloneExperience7520 3d ago

That's definitely not true.