Chernobyl exclusion zone
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Zone of Alienation[a] is an officially designated exclusion zone around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster.[5]: p.4–5 : p.49f.3 It is also commonly known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the 30-Kilometre Zone, or simply The Zone.[5]: p.2–5 [b]
Established by the Soviet Armed Forces soon after the 1986 disaster, it initially existed as an area of 30 km (19 mi) radius from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant designated for evacuation and placed under military control.[6][7] Its borders have since been altered to cover a larger area of Ukraine. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone borders a separately administered area, the Polesie State Radioecological Reserve, to the north in Belarus. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is managed by an agency of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, while the power plant and its sarcophagus (and replacement) are administered separately.
The Exclusion Zone covers an area of approximately 2,600 km2 (1,000 sq mi)[8] in Ukraine immediately surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant where radioactive contamination is highest and public access and habitation are restricted. Other areas of compulsory resettlement and voluntary relocation not part of the restricted Exclusion Zone exist in the surrounding areas and throughout Ukraine.[9] In February 2019 it was revealed that talks were underway to redraw the boundaries of the Exclusion Zone to reflect the declining radioactivity of the Zone's outer areas.[10]
The Exclusion Zone's purpose is to restrict access to hazardous areas, reduce the spread of radiological contamination, and conduct radiological and ecological monitoring activities.[11] Today, the Exclusion Zone is one of the most radioactively contaminated areas in the world and draws significant scientific interest for the high levels of radiation exposure in the environment, as well as increasing interest from tourists.[12][13] The zone has become a thriving sanctuary with natural flora and fauna with some of the highest biodiversity and thickest forests in all of Ukraine. This is due to the lack of human activity in the Exclusion Zone and is despite the radiation.[14]
The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone was the site of fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces during the capture of Chernobyl on 24 February 2022, and during its eventual liberation during a Ukrainian counterattack two months later, as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[15] The exclusion zone remains closed to tourists pending the eventual cessation of hostilities in the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Geographically, it includes the northernmost part of Vyshhorod Raion (district) in Kyiv Oblast (region).
History[edit]
Before 1986[edit]
Historically and geographically, the zone is the heartland of the Polesia region. This predominantly rural woodland and marshland area was once home to 120,000 people living in the cities of Chernobyl and Pripyat as well as 187 smaller communities,[16] but is now mostly uninhabited. All settlements remain designated on geographic maps but marked as нежил. (nezhyl.) – "uninhabited". The woodland in the area around Pripyat was a focal point of partisan resistance during the Second World War, which allowed evacuated residents to evade guards and return into the woods.[7] In the woodland near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant stood the "Partisan's Tree" or "Cross Tree", which was used to hang captured partisans. The tree fell down due to age in 1996 and a memorial now stands at its location.