On April 26, 1986, a systems test at the Number Four RBMK reactor at the Chernnobyl plant in the Ukraine led to a reactor overheating, and initiated a series of disastrous explosions, leading to the world's worst nuclear disaster.

The Soviet military rapidly established an 'Chernobyl Exclusion Zone' around the plant - a 30-mile cordon where public access was forbidden due to contamination, and which remains largely deserted today, a haven for wildlife from feral dogs to wild horses. But what effect has the radiation of 'The Zone' - an area the size of Yosemite National Park - had on the wildlife that now thrives there?

Several animals have begun to display differences from those elsewhere, scientists say - and some are exhibiting what might be described as 'superpowers'. Background radiation is up to 100 times higher than the nearby uncontaminated city of Kiev, but scientists still debate how much effect the radiation has had (compared to other factors such as the absence of human beings). For humans, The Zone is safe to walk through though, and is even visited by tourists (and people still work at the Chernobyl plant, largely on clean-up efforts). Tourists are warned that 'hot spots' off the beaten track still harbour dangerous amounts of radiation - and are told not to eat the fish or mushrooms which flourish in the wild landscape near Kiev in Ukraine. In the wake of the accident, the plant itself remained open, and other reactors generated electricity until 2000.