Solar panels unveiled at Chernobyl nuclear power site

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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 2018Image source, Reuters
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A new solar power plant has been built at the site of the former Chernobyl nuclear power station

Image source, Reuters
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The Chernobyl plant was the site of a catastrophic nuclear disaster in 1986

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Radioactive material was released into the atmosphere across parts of Europe, leading to a rise in cases of thyroid cancer

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The area around the plant is now part of an exclusion zone spanning 1,000 square miles (2,600 sq km)

Image source, AFP
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The Chernobyl plant was decommissioned and forced to close in 2000

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Ukraine has now launched its first solar plant in the abandoned area around the former power station

Image source, Reuters
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The country's government wants renewable energy companies to develop the abandoned land

Image source, EPA
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The site will create enough energy to power around 2,000 households

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However people will not be able to return to live in the evacuated zone for another 24,000 years, Ukrainian authorities say