Expert: No scientific facts of radiation-caused mutation

No scientific facts of radiation-caused mutation have been registered. The information was released by Professor Yakov Kenigsberg, Head of the Radiation Safety Lab of the National Hygiene Research Center, Chairman of the Radiation Protection Commission under the Council of Ministers of Belarus, during the online conference hosted by the BelTA website on 26 April.

“In the entire history of artificial radionuclides and nuclear power engineering no human mutations have been registered even after the accident in the Urals or the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” said Yakov Kenigsberg. He specified that it is theoretically possible. “The science allows for possible genetic deviations. Inherited defects of human development are possible and it is one of the effects of radiation impact,” he explained.

Yakov Kenigsberg said that after the Chernobyl disaster large doses of radiation affected primarily flora. As an example he mentioned the famous red forest on the Ukrainian side. “The red forest of pine trees has received a radiation burn, with the green needles turning yellow. It has been reburied twice, it is now a clean site. Soon after the accident in the town of Pripyat unusual plants were registered. Straight needles had been replaced by curly ones due to radiation. Now there are no consequences there, the trees in Pripyat are fully recovered,” said the expert.

According to the source, at present optimal conditions have been created in the Polesie state radiation ecology wildlife sanctuary, which is located within a 30km radius around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. “There are huge numbers of animals there – elks, hogs, beavers. Birds and plant varieties, which are in the Red Book of Endangered Species, have emerged. European bisons were once transported to that location and there are about 70 of them there now,” he said. The Ukrainians have transported Przewalski's horses there. “The colts are born absolutely healthy, no five-legged or two-headed ones are born,” concluded Yakov Kenigsberg.