UKRAINE. May-june 2008. Outside of the forbidden zone. Forest that is radioactive and contaminated, but not fully closed off to the public. The average range of radiation detected is between 3 and 10 microsieverts an hour, The 'acceptable' daily dose that mammels, including of course humans, should be exposed to, is 2.74 microsieverts (the present 'acceptable' annual dose is considered to be 1000 microsieverts). The area is heavily populated by wild boar and dear. People mistakenly believe that this is a sign of nature regerating the area. It is more accurately a consequence of the absence of humans, the animals are all heavily contaminated. They eat roots found under the earths surface, in the place where radioactive elements are most concentrated. The contaminated animals are sometimes hunted, illegally, by poachers, in turn contaminating those that eat them. Paradoxaly there is a silence in the forest that gives a scary impression of being in a middle age folk tale. May-June 2008.