More than 30 geezerhood afterwards , the site of the world ’s most catastrophic nuclear catastrophe is about to get a major rhytidoplasty . In a reveal on Friday , two major DOE companies showed off thousands of newfangled solar panels built in Chernobyl ’s radioactive exclusion zona in a bid to transition Ukraine ’s energy grid to more renewable sources .

Some 3,800 solar panels now live in the mostly uninhabitable 1.6 - hectare ( 4 - acre ) contaminated surface area that will produce enough energy to provide 2,000 flat . At the cost of1 million euros($1.2 million ) , German clean - energy company Enerparc AG and Ukrainian engineering science firm Rodina Energy Group Ltd say they plan to invest another 99 million euros to eventually develop around 100 megawatt .

The design was first announce in2016with expression set out sooner this year . It come as Ukraine is puzzle out to branch out its electrical generation after having stopped buying raw gas from Russia . The solar works is locate a brusk walk across from the former powerfulness station responsible for the 1986 meltdown , which is bury in a gargantuan metallic element and concrete “ sarcophagus ” that limits the loss of lingering radiation into the environment and atmosphere .

In the land surrounding the nuclear meltdown site , for about 1,600 km   ( 1,000 miles ) , other   activeness such as husbandry or forestry are too dangerous to deal because it is so contaminated with actinotherapy . Not only is the site already conveniently connected to the mightiness power system , but Ukraine will also be paying 15 euro penny per kW - hour for the next 12 age , almost50 percentmore than the European average .

On April 26 , 1986 , Reactor Number Four infamouslyexploded , killing 30 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant due to a flawed reactor design and inadequately - trained doer . The steam and fervidness blowup give up 5 percent of the radioactive nuclear reactor gist into the standard pressure with some estimates suggested up to 75 per centum of Europe was affected by the side effect , with neighboring Belarus and Russia getting reach the hardest .

The Energy Department released was10 timesthat of the atomic bombs drop on Hiroshima , prompting Soviet authorities to empty century of M of people .

Over clock time , the other nuclear reactor were shut down with the last closing in 2000 . Over 5,000 square klick ( 2,000 square Swedish mile ) are still abandoned and humans wo n’t be capable to resettle in the area for another 24,000 geezerhood when the radioactive contamination is think to have dropped to a degree no longer unsafe .