On April 15, as part of a press tour to the Exclusion Zone, representatives of the Ukrainian mass media visited the New Safe Confinement, as well as Prypiat and Chornobyl cities.
During the visit to the New Safe Confinement, the First Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Bohdan Borukhovskyi, as well as SAUEZM and ChNPP managers addressed to the journalists.
«Life in Ukraine was divided into «before» and «after» the 26th of April 1986. We can say with confidence it affected every Ukrainian family in one or another way. No doubt, the state, as well as all the Ukrainians, will commemorate the deeds of those people who helped to eliminate the consequences [of the Chornobyl accident - ed.], who fought the disaster in the first days, and who fought over the subsequent years. Indeed, the employees who work here today are still overcoming the consequences of what occurred 35 years ago», — Mr. Borukhovskyi said at a briefing.
In addition, Bohdan Borukhovskyi described the Ministry's vision in the field of the Exclusion Zone development and plans to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the tragedy.
«Chornobyl is a unique territory and a monument to those who were born, grew up here and worked here and saved humanity from a nuclear disaster. This is a heroic and tragic era. The Ministry of Environmental Protection plans to show various Chornobyl, not only as a place of memory about the accident, but also as a zone of nature revival. And this is also a scientific platform and a place of tourism development in the future. We want to let everyone know that Chornobyl is safe. It is the evidence that the Ukrainians have overcome the problem and the situation is under control. The zone is changing. And our main task is to give it a new meaning and to transform it from a zone of alienation into a zone of revival», — Bohdan Borukhovskyi said.
According to him, the Ministry provides for the following areas of the Exclusion Zone development:
1. Barrier function and safe management of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. The State is creating facilities in the Exclusion Zone that will complete the stage of activity in the field of nuclear energy use – i.e. centralized long-term storage and disposal of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste.
2. Revival of the territory as a cultural heritage and tourist magnet. Exclusion Zone is a place where people can see the scale of human activity and its impact on the planet. These things do not leave anyone unconcerned. We want to make the visit to the (Non) Exclusion Zone but the Revival zone as comfortable as possible.
3. A separate industrial cluster. This is promoted by attracting significant investment in the territory development, advantageous geographical location, availability of engineering and transport infrastructure.
4. Modern and comfortable platform for the activity of Ukrainian and foreign scientists. Opening of an innovation park.
5. Development of the Chornobyl Radiation and Ecological Biosphere Reserve. A unique place of preservation of natural complexes of Polissia. Only here you can find the whole spectrum of radionuclides and holistic ecosystems at the same time.
Also in his speech, the Deputy Minister emphasized that the New Safe Confinement is a high-tech facility, as well as a demonstration of how people can deal with complex global disasters.
According to Bohdan Borukhovskyi, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources is working to change the perception of the Exclusion Zone into the zone of development and revival.
Serhii Kostiuk, Head of the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management, noted that the main efforts of the Agency and enterprises of SAUEZM management sphere are focused at performing all works aimed at the Chornobyl Unit 4 accident consequences elimination and mitigation. Moreover, great attention should be paid to the development of these areas and attraction of investment.
ЗIn particular, about 80% of the Exclusion Zone territory is occupied by the Chornobyl Radiation and Biosphere Ecological Reserve, and the rest of the territory is a zone of special industrial use, where many high-tech facilities are located, which provide safe and reliable spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste storage and management.
«The 35th anniversary of the accident is approaching; this is a severe event not only for Ukraine but for the entire world. The people who stood in the way of this accident are, without any doubt, the heroes who stopped its spread with their lives and health.
We will do our best to safely perform work at the Chornobyl site, radioactive waste processing, spent nuclear fuel management, ChNPP Units decommissioning, and Shelter Object transformation into a safe condition.
We will try to be worthy of those heroes who withstood at the beginning of the accident liquidation» — said Valeriy Seyda, Acting Director General of Chornobyl NPP.