The Unlikely Intersection Of Nuclear Fallout And Green Energy

Will the world's largest atomic fallout exclusion zone one day host the world's largest solar farm?

The infamous nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, near Pripyat in Soviet Ukraine, occurred 30 years ago. A fire and series of explosions in one of the plant's reactors caused the largescale release of radiation across parts of Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, and other parts of Europe.

Despite extensive containment and decontamination efforts, lingering radiation in the area immediately surrounding the site of the meltdown has rendered the land uninhabitable for humans, likely for centurties. Other uses of the land, such as forestry or farming, have also been deemed too risky. As a result, a large swathe of once-viable land in northern Ukraine sits unused.