Solar panels unveiled at Chernobyl nuclear power site

  • 6 October 2018

Ukraine launches its first solar plant in the abandoned area around the former nuclear power station.

  • 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 Reuters

    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 Chernobyl Reuters

    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 BBC

    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. BBC

    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 2018 AFP

    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 2018 Reuters

    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 2018 EPA

    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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