Red Forest
The Red Forest (Ukrainian: Рудий ліс, Rudyi lis Russian: Рыжий лес Ryzhy les), formerly the Wormwood Forest, is the 10-square-kilometre (4 sq mi) area surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant within the Exclusion Zone. The name "Red Forest" comes from the ginger-brown colour of the pine trees after they died following the absorption of high levels of radiation from the Chernobyl accident on 26 April 1986. In the post-disaster cleanup operations, the Red Forest was bulldozed and buried in "waste graveyards". The site of the Red Forest remains one of the most contaminated areas in the world today.
Disaster and cleanup
The Red Forest is located in the zone of alienation; this area received the highest doses of radiation from the Chernobyl accident and the resulting clouds of smoke and dust, heavily polluted with radiation. The trees died from this radiation. The explosion and fire at the Chernobyl No. 4 reactor contaminated the soil, water and atmosphere with radiation equivalent to that of 20 times the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.