Radionuclide content in lichen thallus in the forests adjacent to the Chernobyl atomic power plant

The concentrations of 106Ru, 134Cs, 137Cs, and 144Ce in thalli of lichens Hypogymnia physodes and Cladina mitis, in the bark of pine tree Pinus silvestris are very high in the immediate vicinity of the Chernobyl atomic power plant. They decrease with increasing distance from the centre of the accident. However, even outside the 30-km zone of population evacuation, they surpass concentrations of these radionuclides from global fallout by hundreds of times.