It has been over thirty years since the nuclear reactor meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but why there is still an officially designated exclusion zone? The Chernobyl Disaster Task combines the learning of exponential functions with properties of radioactive substances to help students understand the ongoing effects of the meltdown. Mathematical modeling is "a process that uses mathematics to represent, analyze, make predictions or otherwise provide insight into real-world phenomena" (Garfunkel and Montgomery, 2019, p. 8). Mathematical modeling tasks provide multiple points of entry for students, many solution pathways, and the opportunity for students to express various ways of thinking as they use mathematical reasoning to justify their models. Integrated mathematics and science modeling tasks, like the Chernobyl Disaster Task, offer a way to make difficult-to-study, real-world phenomena accessible for a rich and authentic learning experience (Hjalmarson et al., 2020). Following a description of the task's implementation with high school students, this article will offer insights to support teachers in using this task with their students.