A SCIENTIST from York has returned from a visit to Chernobyl nuclear power plant - where it is hoped he will be able to assist with the decommissioning of the radioactive site.

Adam Fisher, 30, was among a team invited to the site of the worst ever nuclear power plant accident, to see the progress made in decommissioning the site.

Their focus is the lava-like substance created as the reactor core melted into the surrounding structural material.

As a PhD student specialising in material science, and specifically nuclear waste, it is hoped Adam and the team from the University of Sheffield will be able to assist in safely decommissioning, and ultimately disposing of, the radioactive material.

As well as touring the crumbling Ukranian power station, the group saw the 30 km exclusion zone around the site, where villages have been demolished, and visited the abandoned city of Pripyat, which had been home to 300,000 people until the 1986 disaster.

"The main thing that struck me as I was walking around Pripyat was that it didn't seem real," Adam said, "I don't think we are able to register or comprehend such things as an overgrown modern city. You can hardly see 10-plus story apartment blocks because of the dense forest that has reclaimed most of the town. The football stadium sums that up, in fact it was brand new and was never used."

The fall out from the explosion killed 31 people and is thought to be responsible for causing many thousands of deaths through cancer.

It is thought the land immediately surrounding the plant will be contaminated for 20,000 years.

Now back in the UK, the team is testing a non radioactive simulant which mimics the lava, with the aim of aiding decommission.

Adam, who is originally from Rawcliffe in York, said he feels hopeful they can make a difference. "It should never have happened and it's something we shouldn't have to be working on," he said, "But it has happened, so the best thing we can do is try to clear it up the best we can."