Chernobyl exclusion zone

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Zone of Alienation, also known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone or Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, is also called the 30-Kilometre Zone or simply The Zone, was established shortly after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union.

Initially, Soviet authorities declared an exclusion zone spanning a 30-kilometre (19 mi) radius around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, designating the area for evacuations and placing it under military control. Its borders have since been altered to cover a larger area of Ukraine including the northernmost part of Vyshhorod Raion in Kyiv Oblast, and adjoins the Polesie State Radioecological Reserve in neighbouring Belarus. The Chernobyl exclusion zone is managed by the State Agency of Ukraine of on Exclusion Zone Management of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, while the power plant and its sarcophagus and the New Safe Confinement are administered separately.

The current area of approximately 2,600 km (1,000 sq mi) in Ukraine is where radioactive contamination is the highest, and public access and habitation are accordingly restricted. Other areas of compulsory resettlement and voluntary relocation not part of the restricted exclusion zone exist in the surrounding areas and throughout Ukraine. In February 2019, it was revealed that talks were underway to re-adjust the exclusion zone's boundaries to reflect the declining radioactivity of its outer areas.

Public access to the exclusion zone is restricted in order to prevent access to hazardous areas, reduce the spread of radiological contamination, and conduct radiological and ecological monitoring activities. Today, the Chernobyl exclusion zone is one of the most radioactively contaminated areas on Earth and draws significant scientific interest for the high levels of radiation exposure in the environment, as well as increasing interest from disaster tourists. It has become a thriving sanctuary, with naturally diverse flora and fauna and some of the thickest forests in Ukraine, primarily due to the lack of human activity in the exclusion zone since 1986.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Chernobyl exclusion zone has been the site of fighting with neighbouring Russia, which captured Chernobyl on 24 February 2022. By April 2022, the Kyiv offensive failed and Russian military withdrew from the region. Ukrainian authorities continue to keep the exclusion zone closed to tourists, pending cessation of hostilities in the Russo-Ukrainian war.