Chernobyl – 20 years later wildlife Is thriving | Below are some amazing Flickr sets 20 years on. From National Geographic: Despite Mutations, Chernobyl Wildlife Is Thriving Twenty years ago today, reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded. The blast covered vast areas of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia (see map) with dangerous radioactive material. The effects of the Chernobyl catastrophe are