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By Lucas Laursen of Nature magazine Nuclear accidents can have devastating consequences for the people and animals living in the vicinity of the damaged power plants, but they also give researchers a unique opportunity to study the effects of radiation on populations that would be impossible to recreate in the lab. Tim Mousseau, who directs the Chernobyl Research Initiative at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, together with an international team, is studying the long-term ecological and health consequences of the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine. [More]

The partial meltdown of nuclear fuel at the Fukushima nuclear power plant has created a crisis in Japan. Nature Video provides a brief summary of events at the plant, and what lies ahead for the damaged reactors

By Declan Butler of Nature magazine Even as the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station continue to leak radiation, researchers have begun laying the groundwork for studies that will look for any long-term effects on public health. Academic scientists face major obstacles as they try to collate baseline data on radiation doses in the face of the enormous disruption caused by the earthquake and tsunami that hit the country last month.

There are reports that the U.S.

Infinitesimal radioactive isotopes can be carried along on the breeze, landing unseen on the ground, clothes and skin. These tiny products of nuclear reactions are capable of causing large-scale damage in the body if they make it inside through inhalation, ingestion or even a cut. And many fear that such isotopes spewed from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are traveling inter-continentally--and in higher quantities than Japanese officials are reporting

Japanese citizens rush to the stores to stock up on survival supplies fearing a possible nuclear meltdown and radiation stemming from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Lucy Craft reports.