Sun rises at Chernobyl

Ukraine is all set to get its first solar power plant. And the new one-megawatt power plant is located just a hundred metres from the new “sarcophagus”, a giant metal dome sealing the remains of the 1
Sun rises at Chernobyl

Ukraine is all set to get its first solar power plant. And the new one-megawatt power plant is located just a hundred metres from the new “sarcophagus”, a giant metal dome sealing the remains of the 1986 Chernobyl accident, the worst  nuclear disaster the world has ever seen

Solar power plant at ground zero
The solar power plant built by the Ukrainian-German company Solar Chernobyl can power about 2,000 flats, according to AFP. The group has spent one million euros on the structure which has about 3,800 photovoltaic panels installed across an area of 1.6 hectares, about the size of two football fields. It hopes the investment will pay for itself off within seven years

No farming here
Ukraine, which has stopped buying natural gas from Russia in the last two years, is seeking to exploit the potential of the Chernobyl uninhabited exclusion zone that surrounds the damaged nuclear power plant which cannot be used for farming. Following the disaster in April 1986, Soviet authorities evacuated hundreds of thousands of people and this vast territory, over 2,000 sq. km wide, has remained abandoned

Still not safe for humans

The plant continued to operate the remaining reactors, the last of which was shut down in 2000, ending industrial activity in the area. People cannot return to live in the zone for “more than 24,000 years”, according to the Ukrainian authorities. The installation of a huge dome above the ruins of the damaged reactor just over a year ago made the realisation of the solar project possible

The dome covers the old concrete structure which had become cracked and unstable, to ensure greater isolation of the highly radioactive magma in the reactor. As a result, radiation near the plant plummeted to just one-tenth of previous levels, according to official figures. Even so, precautions are still necessary: the solar panels are fixed onto a base of concrete blocks rather than placed on the ground because the soil remains contaminated

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