Ukraine will transform Chernobyl zone into biosphere reserve
The President of Ukraine has signed a law transforming the Chernobyl zone into a biosphere reserve. The new document defines the specifics of land-use and town-planning activities.
Thirty years after the Chernobyl disaster, a law was signed to transform the 30km zone around the emergency reactor. The document defines the specifics of land-use, special water-use, town-planning activities, air protection, mandatory resettlement of people to ecologically safe systems and the recovery of the affected area.
The law also allows for scientific and technical activities in the territory subjected to radioactive pollution, including research that will evaluate the impact of ionizing radiation on humans and determine the best way to minimize this impact. Windmills and solar-power plants will be built on the 227,000-hectare territory.
The Chernobyl disaster took place on April 26, 1986. After the tragedy, tens of thousands of people were resettled from the areas contaminated by radioactivity.