Chernobyl nuclear disaster site is being turned into a solar energy plant

[TexasTowelie]

The site of the world's worst nuclear disaster is being turned into a solar energy plant.

In the coming weeks, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site will become home to a $1.2 million solar energy facility, the Independent reported.

The one-megawatt plant will have 3,800 solar panels erected by Solar Chernobyl, a Ukrainian-German company, Futurism added.

"Ukraine's minister of ecology announced a plan in July 2016 to revitalize the 1,000-mile swath of land encircling the site of the nuclear 1986 meltdown. Long-lasting radiation makes farming and forestry too dangerous, so renewable energy is seen as something productive to do with the empty area," Bloomberg added.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/nation-world/world/article/Chernobyl-nuclear-ukraine-photos-solar-plant-12501324.php

[Rhiannon12866]

1. I sure agree that something has needed to be done, hope this is solution

The situation with the dogs is heartbreaking.

[Finishline42]

2. I wonder if NNadir read this part of that link?

He always says that nuclear power has never killed one person (which of course is ridiculous)

from that link:

Chernobyl cemented itself in history April 26, 1986, when a faulty nuclear reactor exploded. The incident, which would go down as the worst nuclear disaster in history, directly killed 31 people and is thought to have led to thousands more deaths due to the effects of radiation.

[NNadir]

3. What a great idea!

Let's take a radioactive zone that has transformed into a Viridian Park, and complicate what we're learning from it by strewing all kinds of toxic electronic junk across it.

If the radiation at Chernobyl so damned dangerous, is it really a good idea to put all kinds of trucks and people to truck there to install this crap?

How might this affect the Wisent who live there and very few other places in Europe? Przewalski's horses?

The stupidity of this idea is appalling.

Why not put idiotic solar cells in Centralia, PA where a coal fire has been burning since 1962?

Solar energy is not an alternative to nuclear energy, and even at Chernobyl it will never be as safe, as sustainable, and as clean as nuclear energy is.

[NickB79]

4. The exclusion zone has reforested. They're going to have to clearcut that land

To install solar panels.

The land is more valuable environmentally as forest than as a solar farm.

[hunter]

5. Destroying natural landscapes for solar plants is despicable.

I don't care if people want to decorate the roofs of their homes, roofs of their shopping centers and factories, or parking lots with solar panels, but it's a damn shame to ruin natural landscapes with solar power plants, especially recovering landscapes like the lands around Chernobyl.

The most horrific thing we learned from the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents is that ordinary human habitation is far worse for the natural environment than fallout the most extreme sorts of nuclear power plant accidents.

[FBaggins]

6. There's plenty of open space around Chernobyl

Besides... 1MW of solar is a tiny farm. It's ridiculous to claim that the site is being "turned into" something when we're talking about about a couple acres of land.