Exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

The exclusion zone was established shortly after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Three controlled territories were defined on the territory of the Zone:

• Special zone (directly the Chernobyl industrial site);
• 10 km zone;
• 30 km zone.

The population from the contaminated territories was evacuated. For workers who remained to service the power plant and the Exclusion Zone, strict dosimetric control of transport was organized, and decontamination points were deployed. At the borders of the zones, a transfer of working people from one vehicle to another was organized to reduce the transfer of radioactive substances ^[2] .

However, large areas of contaminated territories remained outside the 30-kilometer zone, and since the 1990s , a gradual resettlement of settlements in the Polesskiy district , in which the level of contamination with radionuclides exceeded the statutory norms ^[3] , was carried out. So, by 1996 the village was completely resettled. Polesskoye, town. Vilcha, p. Dibrova, s. New World and many others. Since 1997, this territory became part of the Chernobyl zone, was transferred under the control of the State Emergencies Ministry and included in the security perimeter.

By 2011, more than a third of the lands previously included in the exclusion zone were put into economic circulation in Belarus ^[4] . The total area of ​​such territories amounted to 16.35 thousand km² of 46.45 thousand km² removed from economic circulation in 1986 ^[4] .

The Exclusion Zone today is a surface open radioactive source. Within the limits of radioactively contaminated territories, a number of works are being carried out to prevent the spread of radioactive contamination outside the exclusion zone and the influx of radionuclides into the main water bodies of Ukraine ( Kiev Reservoir , Dnieper River , etc.).

The administrative center of the exclusion zone is the city of Chernobyl . In Chernobyl is located the Exclusion Zone Administration (AZO), which is a department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. In the exclusion zone itself, there are personnel of AZO enterprises, personnel of the Chernobyl nuclear power station and a small number of civilians ( dwellings ). The civilian population lives in 11 abandoned settlements. The total number of civilians does not exceed 300 people. The number of personnel working in the exclusion zone and at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is approximately 5,000 people, of which about 3,000 live in Slavutich .

In the zone there are 11 objects of the nature reserve fund of Ukraine. The modern exclusion zone is gradually turning into a reserve for the life of rare animals. The presence of such rare species as a bear , an otter , a badger , a muskrat , a lynx , a deer , a Przhevalsky horse has been established . Also in great numbers moose , roe deer , wolves , foxes , hares , wild boars and bats are found . According to Sergey Gashchak from the Chernobyl Center for Nuclear Safety Problems, wildlife organisms themselves cope with an increased background, and with chemical pollution of the territory, and other negative factors. Thus, the removal of anthropogenic impact had a positive effect, hundreds of times greater than the negative impact of a man-made disaster ^[5] .

Later studies of the fauna carried out using photo traps ^[6] showed that the number and diversity of species of wild animals in the exclusion zone is increasing. The presence of species such as field mouse , yellow-necked mouse , baby mouse , jay , magpie , raccoon dog , American mink , otter , wolf , gray crow and white-tailed eagle has been reliably proven. At the same time, the white-tailed eagle , the American mink and the river otter came to the camera of scientists in the reserve for the first time. Also, camera traps recorded the presence of a bear ^[7] and a bison .

The modern territory of the exclusion zone is a place of illegal tourism - stalking ^{[8] [9]} . The problem of illegal penetrations into the exclusion zone has led to tougher administrative penalties, and the removal of objects from the zone entails criminal liability (Article 267-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) ^[10] .

Settlements

On the territory of the exclusion zone there are several relatively large evacuated settlements:

• Pripyat
• Chernobyl
• Varovichi
• Vilcha
• Kopachi
• Novosepelichi
• Polesskoe
• Severovka
• Yanov

The main long-lived radionuclides that caused pollution are:

• Strontium-90 (half-life ~ 29 years)
• Cesium-137 (half-life ~ 30 years)
• Americium-241 (half-life ~ 432 years)
• Plutonium-239 (half-life ~ 24110 years)

Other radioactive elements (including the isotopes Iod-131 , Cobalt-60 , Cesium-134 ) have now almost completely decayed due to relatively short half-lives and do not contribute to the radioactive contamination of the area.

According to Yuri Andreev, one of the operators of the second block shield of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant during its activity and the liquidator of the consequences of the accident, in an interview with the BBC , the zone continues to settle in with dwellings , part of which are landless farmers who came there, took abandoned houses, started their own farm there, live and work. According to the liquidator, “re-evacuation is already on its own” ^[11] . In addition, “ marauders ” still go around in the zone, who are still robbing abandoned houses, metal, slate are taken out from there, and drug addicts who grow drugs in this zone.

Since April 26, 2016, the Chernobyl Radiation-Ecological Biosphere Reserve has been created on the basis of the Chernobyl exclusion zone. ^[12]

• Documentary series " We " (1989)
• Decay is a 1990 Soviet feature film
• A series of computer games " STALKER " and books built on their plot
• Online shooter "Warface" - special operation "Pripyat", which shows the infected city, the consequences of the accident.
• Computer game " Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare " - two missions take place in the Chernobyl-affected exclusion zone
• In the game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, one of the maps (de_cache) shows a part of the territory near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
• “ Godzilla ” film - Nick Tatopolus has been researching giant mutant earthworms in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone for 3 years
• film "Ranger from the Atomic Zone" (Russia-Belarus, 1999)
• film " Aurora " (2006, Ukraine)
• “ Transformers 3: The Dark Side of the Moon ” film (2011, USA) - one of the initial episodes of the film takes place in the Chernobyl exclusion zone
• In the film " Universal Soldier 3: Revival " (2010, USA), the plot takes place in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
• The forbidden zone (2012, USA)
• Mini-series “ Moths ” (2013, Ukraine)
• The television series Chernobyl. Exclusion Zone ”on TNT (2014) and TV-3 (2017-2019)
• Singer Linda uses images of the destroyed nuclear reactor in the video “Crow”
• In the movie "Die Hard 5", part of the plot takes place in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
• Pink Floyd's Marooned song clip uses modern and documentary filming of Pripyat
• film " Saturday " (2011)
• The album “Nuclear Sun” released in 2009 by the Spanish group Der Blaue Reiter, dedicated to the Chernobyl disaster.
• In the computer game Killing Floor. There is a KF-Pripyat game card.
• Chernobyl mini-series HBO (2019) dedicated to the disaster.
• In the movie The Fast and the Furious: Hobbs and Show, the main characters fall into the city of Pripyat

• Polessky State Radiation and Ecological Reserve - continuation of the Zone on the territory of the Republic of Belarus
• Pleistocene Park
• Chernobyl stalking
• Karazhira
• Law of Ukraine “On the Legal Regime of a Territory Subjected to Radioactive Contamination as a Result of the Chernobyl Disaster”
• East Ural Reserve

• Reznichenko A. Ya. Ten myths surrounding the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant // RIA Novosti . - April 24, 2009.
• Reznichenko A. Ya. Chernobyl: lies and truth after 30 years // RIA Novosti . - 04/22/2016.
• Gos. Department - Exclusion Zone Administration
• Chernobyl Center for Nuclear Safety, Radioactive Waste and Radioecology
• ex-Press.by - May 9th is not a holiday here ...