MOSCOW, April 27. /TASS/. There are plans to turn the Chernobyl NPP exclusion zone into a science hub, and France will aid Ukraine in that, Ukrainian Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Strelets said Thursday.

"I’ve met with […] the Minister of Ecology of France recently. We agreed that France will aid in development of a science hub in the exclusion zone. The work in this area is already underway. I am certain that right now […] we can carry out research that could not be carried out anywhere else in the world," the Minister said, according to Ukrainian TV.

On April 2, 1986, the largest incident in the history of nuclear energy occurred on the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl NPP, contaminating over 200,000 square kilometers of USSR territory. A 30-km exclusion zone was established around the power plant, with decontamination operation carried out at the power plant; all reactors were decommissioned. Construction of a protective structure over the fourth reactor started immediately after the incident.

In 2016, another dome, called "New Safe Confinement" was built over the old structure, which was commissioned several years later. The new confinement is expected to ensure radiation security for the next 100 years. In February, Russia’s inter-agency coordination center on humanitarian response reported that IAEA missions to the Chernobyl NPP in April, June, November, 2022 and January, 2023, confirmed a normal radiation level at the station and on adjacent territory.