You're reading: Baloha: Chornobyl exclusion zone must be accessible to public

Ukrainian Emergencies Minister Viktor Baloha has said that the exclusion zone near the Chornobyl nuclear power plant should be open and accessible to the public as much as possible.

"I must admit that the established mechanism of travel to the Chornobyl zone is not quite what I had imagined. At the same time, we can say that it is tightly closed. The zone will remain accessible to scientists, experts, journalists, and international control and monitoring groups. The rules of visits have become more rigorous," he said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine, while commenting on the order recently approved by the Emergencies Ministry regarding the mechanism of travel to the exclusion zone.

Baloha said that there still existed illegal tourism in the Chornobyl zone and that the ministry wanted to make the possibility of getting into this territory legal.

"This situation is similar to that described by [Russian satiric writer Mikhail] Zhvanetsky: someone possesses what he guards. I seem someone’s concrete interest in the illegal penetration into this huge area with significant resources. We would like everybody to enter this zone legally, without abuse, rather than through the fence and quietly. Thus, the Emergencies Ministry issued an order on the mechanism of travel to the exclusion zone. The further situation around this is well-known to you," he said.

Baloha said that he was a staunch supporter of the maximum openness of the exclusion zone.

"Not in the sense that it should become a place of public access, but travel to this area should be accessible to everyone," he said.

As reported, new rules for traveling to the exclusion zone of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant were introduced on December 2, 2011.

Under the new rules, for traveling to the exclusion zone, a written request has to be submitted to the Ukrainian State Agency for Management of the Exclusion Zone at least ten days before the trip. The request has to contain the person’s contact information, citizenship, the aim and terms of the trip, a description of the information that the visitor to the Chornobyl zone would like to receive during the trip, as well as written confirmation that the person has no legal bans on traveling to the exclusion zone.

In February 2011, the Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry approved the procedure for travel to the Chornobyl exclusion zone by Ukrainian citizens, foreign delegations and foreigners using the services of tour operators. However, this order was declared illegal based on the lawsuit lodged by the Prosecutor General’s Office at Kyiv’s District Administrative Court.

Then the Emergencies Ministry developed new rules for traveling to the exclusion zone, considering the proposals of law enforcement agencies. The Emergencies Ministry approved the rules with all of the concerned state structures and registered the document in the Ukrainian Justice Ministry.