Solar panels unveiled at Chernobyl nuclear power site
- Published
![Solar panels are seen through barbed wire in front of the New Safe Confinement arch covering the damaged fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine on 5 October 2018](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/FB76/production/_103747346_hi049784039.jpg)
A new solar power plant has been built at the site of the former Chernobyl nuclear power station
The Chernobyl plant was the site of a catastrophic nuclear disaster in 1986
Radioactive material was released into the atmosphere across parts of Europe, leading to a rise in cases of thyroid cancer
The area around the plant is now part of an exclusion zone spanning 1,000 square miles (2,600 sq km)
The Chernobyl plant was decommissioned and forced to close in 2000
Ukraine has now launched its first solar plant in the abandoned area around the former power station
The country's government wants renewable energy companies to develop the abandoned land
The site will create enough energy to power around 2,000 households
However people will not be able to return to live in the evacuated zone for another 24,000 years, Ukrainian authorities say
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