This month marks the 20th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine, a catastrophe that confirmed the world’s worst fears about the nuclear age.

Much will be written about what caused the cataclysmic meltdown and the Soviet government’s deplorable handling of the situation. In this spring season of rebirth, though, we also can focus on some poignant and positive events at Chernobyl since 1986.

We South Carolinians have a unique connection to this infamous spot. Researchers from our state have been playing an integral role in studying the effects of Chernobyl’s radiation spill on humans, animals and plants. More importantly, they have been looking for ways to help those affected so acutely, as well as develop models and strategies to use in the event of a similar tragedy. Chernobyl can be viewed as a cautionary tale that yields important information.

Led primarily by the School of the Environment at the University of South Carolina, teams of scientists and other investigators from USC, Clemson and MUSC have made more than a dozen trips to Chernobyl in the past eight years, securing special permission from the Ukrainian government to work in the highly restricted area. Tim Mousseau, a biology professor at USC who is also an adjunct professor at Clemson, has emerged as one of the world’s leading scholars on the effects of that radioactive environment.

Teaming with international collaborators, Mousseau has made startling discoveries in mutations in animals, specifically barn swallows. Mousseau and his colleagues are conducting the most comprehensive studies yet undertaken of survival and reproduction in natural populations in areas imbued with radiation.

In the 20 years since Chernobyl, there are also positive indicators emanating from the world of nature. Species of plants and animals killed in huge numbers by the nuclear explosion are coming back, and today Chernobyl’s forests and fields are verdant again with trees and flowers. Animals are returning to live on the land still full of radiation.

The full effects of this radioactive landscape will not be known for years, but South Carolinians had a unique chance to see for themselves how Chernobyl’s natural populations have returned when ETV’s “NatureScene” produced a program from Chernobyl. With special permission, Rudy Mancke took viewers on a tour of the area, looking at birds, insects, snakes and mammals making their homes there again two decades after the disaster.

But in addition to the ongoing research and natural rebirth at Chernobyl, there is a poignant story that focuses upon one woman, Rimma Kiselitsa, whose recent death brought sadness to those of us who knew her. A Ukrainian interpreter and guide, Rimma was just as much a hero of Chernobyl as the firemen and other rescuers who responded to the disaster.

The story of an independent, adventurous, smart and very warm woman who became a good friend to visitors from South Carolina is a microcosm of the struggles of the citizens in the former Soviet Union. As a newly divorced mother of two young children living in Moscow in the 1980s, Rimma learned of the need for translators at Chernobyl shortly after the disaster occurred.

Enticed by the high salary — in actuality, hazardous duty pay — that working at Chernobyl offered, Rimma made the difficult decision to move to Ukraine to try to give her children a better life. Twenty years later, she was still working there.

Although she was a consummate professional who could speak with authority about the technical aspects of Chernobyl, Rimma’s real contributions came in her compassionate, loving care of the elderly individuals known in the area as the “resettlers.” They had lived in the villages surrounding Chernobyl and were driven from their homes by the Soviet government after the land was contaminated by radiation. These elderly citizens slowly began to defy the government over the years and sneak back into their old villages.

Not officially recognized by Ukraine, these elderly people do not receive assistance. Rimma, however, made it her mission to make weekly rounds. Often we saw her provide food, medicine and other supplies. She ignored official regulations and took the resettlers to the doctors working at the Chernobyl site. The last time I saw Rimma, in an act that was typical of her thoughtfulness and insight, she had taken a stray puppy she had found near the reactor to an elderly couple, saving the puppy and bringing the two old people an affectionate companion.

Since I heard the news of her death, I have thought often about Rimma’s unwavering optimism and joyful spirit, even in one of our planet’s most dire places. During this month’s inevitable cavalcade of stories about Chernobyl, instead of focusing on the cataclysmic facts, it seems much more fitting that we consider the positive research being conducted there that could impact us all, and remember as well Rimma Kiselitsa, whose real human touch focused on renewal and hope. This would be a fitting way to celebrate the human spirit as we usher in the first full month of spring.

Ms. Beasley is grants director for Clemson's Institute for Economic and Community Development.