Unlocking the Secrets of Chornobyl's Radioactive Trees

The Chornobyl disaster in 1986 changed the forests around it forever. Even now, wood from these forests is still being used. Scientists wanted to find out what makes some trees hold more radiation than others. They looked at different types of trees and soils to see how much strontium-90 and cesium-137 they contain. They took samples from 205 different spots in the forest. The results showed that pine and birch trees growing in dry, poor soil had the most strontium-90. The size of the trees and how rich the soil was also played a big role. The scientists used a special computer program called XGBoost to predict how much radiation was in the wood. This program looked at things like how dirty the soil was, the size of the trees, and how old they were. It turned out that the type of tree wasn't as important as other factors. The scientists found that the XGBoost program was better at predicting cesium-137 levels than the older methods. For strontium-90, it was just as good. This shows that using computers to study radiation in trees can be very helpful. It also gives us a better idea of what makes some trees hold more radiation than others.