Rehabilitative measures have made it possible to return almost half of the forested area and 30% of the land contaminated by radio-nuclides in terms of economic turnover after the explosion at ChNPP in 1986.
As the Emergencies Ministry press office told Construction.ru, the number of RF localities contaminated with radiation has decreased twofold since the beginning of the 1990s. From 1990 until 2015, 6 Federal Target Programs have been initiated to overcome the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, which affected over 3m people living in 19 regions of Russia. More than 9.2 bln roubles were allotted from the federal budget. At present, 1.7m Russian citizens are being socially supported according to the “Chernobyl” law.
Addressing participants in the Chernobyl post-accident clean-up, President Putin said, “Chernobyl has become a serious lesson for the whole of mankind, and its consequences still impact upon nature and people. The tragedy’s scale could have been larger if it weren’t for the unprecedented courage and dedication of fire fighters, military men, specialists, and medical personnel who fulfilled their professional and civic duty. We rightly think them to be heroes and mourn them”.
To remind you, the accident at the Chernobyl NPP took place in Ukraine on April 26th, 1986. The reasons for the 4th power-generating unit’s exploding are still unclear. As a result of the catastrophe, 14 RF regions with a total area of 60,000 km2 and a population of 3m people were contaminated. Over 2m hectares of agricultural land and 1m hectares of forest were subjected to radioactive pollution.
The most polluted are the Briansk (12,100 km2), Kaluga (4,900 km2), Tula (11,600 km2) and Orel (8,900 km2) regions. About 200,000 Russian citizens took part in the consequent control and recovery operation.
The total area of radiation contamination in Ukraine was no more than 50,000 km2 in 12 regions. In Belarus, 46,500 km2 (23% of the total area) was affected.
