Solar panels unveiled at Chernobyl nuclear power site

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 2018Reuters

A new solar power plant has been built at the site of the former Chernobyl nuclear power station

A new Safe Confinement arch covers the damaged fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near a newly built solar power plant in ChernobylReuters

The Chernobyl plant was the site of a catastrophic nuclear disaster in 1986

An operation to treat thyroid cancer at the Institute of Endocrinology in Kiev on 5 April 2004

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

Chernobyl skyline buildings, as seen on 1 April 2010.

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

A man walks next to the New Safe Confinement over the fourth block of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Chernobyl on 5 October 2018AFP

The Chernobyl plant was decommissioned and forced to close in 2000

Solar panels are seen through barbed wire in front of the New Safe Confinement arch at a newly-built solar power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine October 5, 2018.Reuters

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

Workers at the solar panel plant at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine on 5 October 2018Reuters

The country's government wants renewable energy companies to develop the abandoned land

Workers walk past the "Solar Chernobyl" power plant near the remains of the nuclear reactor Unit 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in Chernobyl, Ukraine on 5 October 2018EPA

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

Sun shines on Solar panels in front of the the damaged fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, at solar power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine on 5 October 2018.Reuters

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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