Radioactive contamination of the territory of Belarus

At 01:24 Moscow time on 26 April 1986, two sequential explosions happened at the 4th Unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (Ukraine), which destroyed the span structures, blew off the reactor building roof opening its active zone and released into atmosphere a great amount of uranium fuel, trans-uranium elements, fission products, concrete and graphite. A fire started. Radioactive substances were released up to 1.8 km and began to move together with air streams towards north-west and north through the western and central regions of Belarus.

About 10 EBq (1E = 1018) of radioactive substances were released into the environment, including 6.3 EBq of radioactive noble gases. About 50-60% of iodine and 30-35% of caesium were released from the reactor; by some assessments the amount was even higher.

The scale of radioactive contamination of the Belarusian territory was determined by the meteorological conditions of movement of radioactive contaminated air streams from April 26 till May 10, 1986 in combination with rains, especially in late April and early May. About two-thirds of radioactive substances fell on its territory as a result of dry and humid precipitation. Radionuclides including short-lived substances spread over the entire territory of the Republic during the initial period following the incident.

Radioactive release resulted in a significant contamination of the areas, populated centres and water reservoirs. As a result of the Chernobyl NPP catastrophe an increased radioactivity was recorded at a distances of tens of thousand kilometres. At the initial stage, the contamination of the natural environment and the formation of dosage impacts on the population was mostly caused by caesium-137 (the half-life period is 30 years), strontium-90 (29 years), plutonium-288 (88 years), plutonium-239 (2.4 x 104 years), plutonium-240 (6,537 years), plutonium-241 (14.4 years), caesium-134 (2 years), caesium-144 (284 days), ruthenium-106 (368 years), iodine-131, -132, -133, -135 (up to 8 days), lanthan-140 (40 hours), neptunium-239 (2 days), barium-140 (13 days), molybdenum-99 (66 hours), strontium-89 (50 days) and about 20 other radionu-clides with short half-life periods.

Radioactive contamination with caesium-137 with the content in soil over 37 kBq/m2 affected 46,450 sq.km of Belarus, which constitutes 23% of the entire Republic's territory (the same value for Ukraine is 5% and for Russia 0.6%). Strontium-90 with the density over 5.5 kBq/m2 affected 21,100 sq.km or 10% of the Republic's territory. Plutonium-238, -239 and -240 with the density over 0.37 kBq/m2 contaminated about 4,000 sq.km or 2% of the Republic's area. The contaminated area located over 3,700 populated centres, including 27 towns, with the population 2.2 million persons, that is over one-fifth of the Belarusian population. The most contaminated regions after the catastrophe turned out to be the Gomel Oblast (1,528 populated centres), the Mogilev Oblast (866 populated centres) and the Brest Oblast (167 populated centres).

Economic damage caused by the Chernobyl NPP catastrophe

The Chernobyl catastrophe affected all spheres of human activities: production, culture, science, economy, etc. About 2,640 sq.km of agricultural land was withdrawn from agricultural use. Fifty-four collective and state farms were liquidated, 9 processing plants of the agro-industrial complex were closed. The sowing areas as well as the gross harvest of agricultural crops sharply dropped; the number of animals was substantially reduced.

The amount of forest, mineral, raw material and other resources used was significantly diminished. About 132 mineral and raw material deposits turned out to be inside the contaminated zone, including 47% of industrial stocks of moulding sand, 19% of construction and silicate sand, 91% of glass-making sand of the Republic, 20% of industrial stocks of chalk, 13% of stocks of clay used for making bricks, 40% of refractory clay, 65% of stocks of construction stone, and 16% of raw material used for fabrication of cement.

Twenty-two mineral and raw material deposits were withdrawn from use, with the balance stocks of almost 5 million cubic metres of sand, sand and gravel materials and clays, 7.7 million tons of chalk, and 13.5 million tons of peat. The Pripyat oil- and gas-bearing region whose resources are estimated at 52.2 million tons of oil has been excluded from plans of geological surveying.

A great damage was caused by the Chernobyl catastrophe to forestry. Over a quarter of the forestry stocks of Belarus - 17,300 sq.km of woods - was affected by radioactive contamination. Annual losses of wood resources today exceed 2 million cubic metres and they may reach 3.5 million cubic metres by 2010. In the Gomel and Mogilev Oblasts, where radionuclides contaminated 51.6% and 36.4%, respectively, of the total forest area cutting of timber was completely terminated on areas with the density of caesium-137 contamination of 555 kBq/m2 or more.

About 340 industrial enterprises whose operation conditions have substantially changed are located inside the contaminated area. In view of moving out of people from the most affected regions, activities of a number of industrial enterprises and social facilities have been stopped. Others sustain huge losses because of reduced production output and incomplete return of resources deposited into buildings, installations, equipment and land-reclamation systems. Losses of fuel, raw and other materials are significant.

The damage caused to the Republic by the Chernobyl catastrophe as calculated for 30 years required to overcome the consequences are estimated at US dollars 235 billion, which is equal to 32 budgets of the Republic of 1985. It includes losses connected with deterioration of people's health; the damage caused to the industry and the social sphere, agriculture, construction complex, transport and communication, housing and communal facilities; contamination of mineral, raw material, land and water resources.

Despite the deficit of the state budget, the Government spends annually about 10% of budgetary resources for overcoming the consequences of the catastrophe. Belarus sustains huge losses for providing living conditions to the population, including payment of different allowances and compensations that constitute 30-50% of the total amount of expenditures assigned to the programme of overcoming consequences of the catastrophe.

The state policy for overcoming the consequences of the catastrophe

Taking into consideration the damage caused by the Chernobyl NPP incident, the scale of the tasks that had to be resolved within a short period of time so as to liquidate the incident's consequences in the Republic, the governmental commission was set up to manage these operations. The Commission was charged with the implementation of the whole set of actions for protecting the population who lived in the territory contaminated with radionuclides. The decision taken by the Commission was the basis for beginning the formation of the regulatory and legal grounds for actions related to liquidation of the incident consequences since the Republic had neither the legislative base nor any practice associated with the performance of such operation.

On 22 March 1989, the resolution was passed to develop the State Programme for Overcoming the Consequences of the Chernobyl NPP Accident in Belarus for 1990-1995 and up to 2000. The Programme was approved in principle in July 1989 by the XI session of the Supreme Council, but was returned for additional elaboration. The same session declared the Republic the area of national environmental calamity. XII session of the Supreme Council adopted the final version of the Programme in October 1989.

It was based on the implementation of measures aimed at maximum reduction the radioactive irradiation dose; assuring preservation of people's health using medical prevention, cure, social security and moving people from populated centres in which safe living criteria were not observed; creating conditions of living safe for human health in regions affected by radioactive contamination; increasing the standard of living of people in such regions; scientific investigation of problems connected with radiation impact on man, the ecosystem, etc.

In April 1990, the Supreme Council (Soviet) of the USSR approved the National Union and Republic Programme of Urgent Measures for 1990-1992 for liquidation of consequences of the Chernobyl NPP incident. On 28 July 1992, the Presidium of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus approved the National Programme for overcoming in the Republic of Belarus of the consequences of Chernobyl NPP catastrophe for 1993-1995 and for the period up to 2000. Today, in force is the National Programme of the Republic of Belarus for minimisation and overcoming of the consequences of the Chernobyl NPP catastrophe for 1996-2000.

The Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus adopted in 1991 the laws On Social Protection of Citizens Who Suffered from the Chernobyl NPP Catastrophe and On the Legal Regime of the Territories Affected by Radioactive Contamination as a Result of the Chernobyl NPP Catastrophe.

The Law On Social Protection of Citizens Who Suffered from the Chernobyl NPP Catastrophe guarantees protection of rights and interests of citizens who took part in the liquidation of the catastrophe consequences, and who presently live in the said territories as well as of citizens who took part in the liquidation or who suffered as a result of the accidents and their consequences on other civil or military nuclear facilities affected as a result of tests, training or other operations.

The Law of the Republic of Belarus On the Legal Regime of the Territories Affected by Radioactive Contamination as a Result of the Chernobyl NPP Catastrophe establishes the legal regime of the territories affected by radioactive contamination as a result of the Chernobyl NPP catastrophe and is aimed at reducing radioactive impact on the population and ecological systems, the performance of nature-restoration actions, rational use of the natural, economic and scientific potential of these territories.

Legislation defines the notions of the national radioactive ecological calamity, the territory of radioactive contamination, the radiation hazardous land, the alienation land, the restricted economic use land, etc.

In 1991, the State Committee on the Problems of Consequences of the Chernobyl NPP Catastrophe was set up, which was transformed in 1994 into the Ministry on Emergencies and Protection of Population Against the Consequences of the Chernobyl NPP Catastrophe and in 1995 into the Ministry on Emergencies. The main tasks of the Ministry in the sphere of overcoming the consequences of the Chernobyl NPP catastrophe are implementation of the state policy in the sphere of protection of population, co-ordination of and control over activities of the ministries and other central bodies of government in these directions.

All scientists and specialists of the respective profile available in the Republic were involved into the solution of very complex environmental, medical, agricultural, economic, social, legal, demographic and other problems. To co-ordinate scientific researches at the first stage after the incident, the Scientific-Technical Council was set up and the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences organised an operative group. The main task was to assess the radiation situation and work out urgent measures and proposals for the Governmental Commission on problems of the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe so as to reduce the adverse impact of radiation on the human body. The results of the investigations performed made it possible to draw maps of radioactive contamination of the Belarusian territory, which were used as the basis for governmental decisions, including decisions on moving people from the affected regions, constructing new housing facilities, determining standards of radiation safety, etc. However, it was evident that the liquidation of the incident consequences would require not only urgent priority actions but also the adoption of long-term scientifically-grounded measures. The available international experience of liquidation of nuclear incident consequences did not make it possible to work out definite recommendations for decision of such large-scale problem. The Programme of complex investigations on problems of liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe was developed and approved.

It is necessary to note that at the time of the incident the republic actually did not have scientific teams specialising along these directions. Such kind of researches was concentrated mostly in Russia. The Government urgently set up specialised scientific institutions as well as training of personnel. These institutions included the Institute of Radiobiology and the Institute of Radioecological Problems of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus (Minsk), the Research Institute of Radiation Medicine (Minsk), the branches of this institute in Vitebsk, Gomel and Mogilev, the Belarusian Research Institute of Agricultural Radiology (Gomel). Practically, all scientific institutions and higher educational institutions which had respective specialists and material and technical support were involved into the solution of the problems: the Institute of Nuclear Energy of the Academy of Sciences, the Belarusian State University, the Belarusian Research Institute of Soil and Agro-chemistry, the Belarusian Research Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, the Institute of Oncology and Medical Radiology, and many other institutions. The majority of scientific teams solved the respective tasks on voluntary basis.

Co-ordination of efforts of scientific institutions within the framework of the Programme allowed the switching over from fulfilment of operative tasks to systematic planned investigations of the incident consequences so as to develop actions needed to minimise these consequences. The tasks included into the Programme were executed by 18 institutes of the Academy of Sciences and more than 20 scientific and higher educational institutions of different departments. Later on, this inter-republican programme was used to develop the Complex Programme of scientific research for overcoming in Belarus of the consequences of the Chernobyl NPP incident.

Chernobyl and People's Health

The numerous data obtained over the years after the incident testify to serious disturbance of health of all categories of the population affected by the Chernobyl catastrophe (participants in liquidation operations, people evacuated and those living in the contaminated territories). Over 1987-1999, there was a growth of primary and general morbidity of children as regards the majority of disease classes, as well as a permanent increase of the number of children with chronic pathology. Tumours, first of all malignant tumours, are increasing in number. The primary registration groups have a high rate of thyroid cancer. In the post-incident period, the affected population demonstrated a growth of diseases in practically all disease classes that is higher than the average rates in the Republic and, first of all, diseases of digestive, cardiovascular, nervous, endocrine and urogenital systems, otorhinolaryngologic diseases both among adults and children. The health of children and adolescents living in radiation contaminated territories continues to aggravate, especially when accompanied by accumulation of long-lived radionuclides (caesium-137 and strontium-90) in an organism. The state of health of those who took part in the liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl NPP incident and of the people evacuated from the alienation area who received significant irradiation dose on the body has become worse. They suffer from a high rate of tumours, leukosis, thyroid gland and blood circulation system diseases that is 4 times higher as compared to general rates for the Republic.

In the post-incident period, the number of absolutely healthy children in the contaminated territories has gone down from 60 to 21% whereas the share of children having chronic pathology has increased from 10 to 22%. Of the total number of children moved from the evacuation zone, today only 13% are recognised as absolutely healthy. On the average, 2-3 diseases are found in one ill child.

Medical consequences of the catastrophe are the subject of close attention of the medical circles of the whole world. It is explained by the fact that radiation impact on the Republic connected with the Chernobyl catastrophe has no analogues either by its character or by its scales. This is, first of all, a multiple-component and prolonged action of ionising radiation, aggravation of radiation effects by numerous factors of social, psychological and anthropogenic origin.

Immediately after the catastrophe a set of actions was started aimed at protecting health of children and adults, performing cure measures, organising the State register of persons affected by the catastrophe, developing methods for diagnosis and correction of disturbances conditioned by the radiation factor, studying the ways of entry of radionuclides into the body, assessing the radiation doses received by the population, and performing actions for their reduction.

The health institutions use more than one hundred human irradiation counters, over 2 thousand radiometry and spectrometry units that are used to investigate about 200 thousand samples of food products every year. Permanent control over raw materials and food products is effected. More than 11 million samples for caesium-137 and about 18 thousand for strontium-90 are analysed annually.

The Ministry of Health has performed a labour-intensive work for organising the Catalogues of radiation doses for people living in populated centres of the Republic; these catalogues are used for taking decisions related to performance of protection actions.

To assure a permanent control over the state of health of more than 2 million people (persons who took part in the liquidation of the consequences as well as citizens living in the contaminated territories and those moved out of such territories), a special system of medical support for the affected population was developed and put into practice in the Republic. This task is solved by the territorial prevention and cure institutions, special mobile medical teams and medical personnel working in the contaminated territories by personnel rotation method, by specialised institutions as well as by Oblast and Republic's services and research institutes.

The Belarusian State Register which includes persons affected by the radiation as a result of the Chernobyl NPP catastrophe was started in 1993. The Register includes data on more than 187 thousand persons.

A number of structural divisions of prevention and cure institutions have been realigned; new specialised departments have been set up. Ultrasonic diagnosis and endoscopy cabinets have been opened in the contaminated regions. In the post-incident years for these regions have been purchased 266 ultrasonic installations, 140 endoscopes, 30 clinical biochemistry laboratories, 66 X-ray installations with image amplifiers, and computer tomographs. Immunology laboratories function in the Oblast centres.

The Republican Specialised Dispensary was opened in Minsk for people affected by the Chernobyl catastrophe as well as a specialised clinic in the township of Aksakovshchina; endocrinological services of the Oblasts have been reinforced.

The Research Institute of Radiation Medicine and its branches in Gomel, Mogilev and Vitebsk provide consulting and specialised cure aid as well as its scientific and methodological support. The Republican Specialised Centre of Oncopatho-logy of Thyroid Glands was organised on the basis of the Minsk Medical Institute and the Minsk City Oncology Dispensary; the department on implantation of bone marrow was opened in the 9th clinical hospital of Minsk.

To ensure full provision of health authorities with medical personnel, a contract employment for medical personnel has been introduced and the Gomel Medical Institute has been opened. Targeted enrolment of students in medical institutes is widely used.

Strengthening of the material basis of the health system and the use of modern treatment and diagnosis technologies and organisational measures have made it possible to cover practically all children and adults with dispensary examination.

Social protection measures for the affected population are determined mainly by dose exposure of the population and the level of contamination with radionuclides of places of living and work. Citizens who move from mandatory evacuation zones are guaranteed compensation of expenses related to evacuation and settlement in a new place. Special dwelling facilities have been built for them in clean regions of the Republic; new flats are built in towns.

Over the period of 1990-1997, about 39,500 dwelling houses and flats with the total area of 3.39 million square metres were built for families that moved to new places. Measures were taken to improve social and economic situation in populated centres receiving evacuated citizens as well as in the territories where people continue to live. General schools for 33,700 places, pre-school institutions for 11,500 places, hospitals for 3,500 beds and ambulatory and polyclinic institutions for 14,700 visitors a shift have been built and commissioned.

Today, measures related to resettlement of people from zones of urgent and subsequent evacuation have been mostly completed. The above territories represent today a vast region defined as the "evacuation zone". Almost 135,000 persons have been evacuated from 471 populated centres (295 in the Gomel Oblast, 174 in the Mogilev Oblast and 2 in the Brest Oblast).

For the purpose of providing living conditions for population in contaminated territories, 4,621 km of hard-pavement motor roads have been built as well as 1,222 km of water pipelines, 302 km of sewerage system, 1,602 km of gas networks; farms and other production facilities have been improved.

The performance of the required complex of work demanded the respective information and personnel support. To this end, databanks have been organised on the condition of radioactive contamination in departments and organisations performing radiation control over food products and food raw materials, territories of populated centres, agricultural land and forests, ground and surface water and for other facilities; these banks are constantly replenished.

The Republic has organised a system of radioecological education including training of both radioecology specialists having higher education and dosimetry and radiometry specialists for laboratories and radiation control posts. Medical and agricultural higher educational institutions train specialists in the sphere of radiation medicine and agricultural radiology.

In 1998, the National Assembly passed the Law On Radiation Safety of Population.

Social protection of persons who took part in the liquidation of the Chernobyl NPP catastrophe consequences is conditioned by the nature of their work and the degree of risk they sustained from the first days of the catastrophe in the most dangerous and important areas. The priority role is assigned to measures aimed at reducing adverse impact of radioactive radiation on health. The largest compensation is provided to persons who became disabled as a result of the incident, including children. They are given free medicines and sanatorium and resort treatment allowances, an additional paid leave, monetary compensation for damage to health and annual payments for cure, and the diminishing of the generally established pension age and additional pension allowances. A range of measures is aimed at improving the economic situation of the given category of citizens. They include privileges on taxation and obtaining of credits, provision with housing accommodations and getting them as private property, use of the public transport facilities and payment of communal services, additional payments to scholarship, etc. The most substantial of the above compensations cover also families of deceased disabled who took part in the liquidation of the incident consequences.

Among social protection measures for the affected people the priority place is taken by their cure. About 533,000 persons, including 442,00 children and adolescents, have the right to annual free health improvement services.

Affected people receive health improvement services all the year round. Trips for mothers with children are provided predominantly in spring and summer. Health-improving institutions organise conditions for continuation of education for school children. Fifty-nine sanatoriums and rest homes rated for 14,400 places are used for treatment and rest of affected people; among them 27 are designed for children; other facilities include 121 sanatoriums and prevention treatment facilities for 14,300 places, 17 rest homes for 3,600 places and 163 health-improving and tourist camps rated for 13,300 places. There are also 6 children rehabilitation and health-improving centres; 4 other centres are under reconstruction.

Measures are taken to expand health-improving facilities: 10 health centres for 2,123 places have been put into use; in 1995-2000 it is planned to organise 7,029 places in health facilities using resources allocated for overcoming the consequences of the catastrophe.

Despite the fact that the share of expenditures for health-improving measures in the total volume of financing established by the Law On Social Protection of Citizens Affected by the Chernobyl NPP Catastrophe constitute up to 40% annually, the republic has no possibility to provide health services for all affected citizens.

Great aid for children's health-improvement is provided to Belarus by West European countries and other foreign states. In the last 5 years about 220,000 children have visited for health purposes 19 countries (Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland, Checz Republic, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Romania, Great Britain, Luxembourg and Japan), i.e., over 50,000 children annually. Great work is done in this respect by about 140 public organisations abroad and 80 organisations in Belarus.

To reduce external dose exposure of the people living in contaminated territories, deactivation operations are conducted in the most contaminated populated centres. A huge volume of work on deactivation, burial of radioactive waste and planning of populated centres has been performed, which has constituted a significant part of expenditures allocated for overcoming the consequences of the catastrophe. Only in 1998 the state specialised enterprises Polessye and Radon deactivated 31 facilities (kindergartens and schools) with the cleaned area of 72,300 square metres.

In 8 populated centres located in the evacuated territories 548 houses were buried and, as experiment, 13 capital buildings. Construction and installation operations have been completed and start-up tests have been commenced on the complex designed for processing liquid and immobilising solid radioactive waste accumulated in the Gomel Oblast. In the 2-3 years to come, it is planned to complete the programme on deactivation of children's pre-school and educational institutions in the Gomel and Mogilev Oblasts.

In the sphere of rehabilitation of contaminated territories a huge work is to be done for forming and implementing regional rehabilitation programmes taking into account specific problems of the territories, including targeted support to the most severely affected entities bordering on the alienation lands.

The Programme of Rehabilitation of Administrative Regions in Contaminated Territories

Over the past years large-scale measures have been undertaken aimed at minimising environmental and economic consequences of this serious radiation catastrophe.

Despite the set of implemented measures that included unprecedented huge volume of actions and the attained real effect, certain problems brought about by the catastrophe have not been solved, but rather aggravated in some cases.

The Chernobyl NPP incident has resulted in changes in the number and the demographic composition of population; the accumulated intellectual, professional and technical potential has been lost, collectives with long-standing history have been destroyed, the economic indicators have gone down. Migration of population has had an adverse impact on the formation of employment of population living in the contaminated regions, which is reflected by a mass-scale outflow of working population, first of all, of skilled specialists, and, as a result, deterioration of quality of labour resources on the whole. The problem has appeared connected with shortage of specialists in the regions, mainly shortage of doctors and teachers. The shortage of labour resources is most evident in the agrarian sector.

In this view, a targeted programme called The Rehabilitation of Contaminated Territories is fulfilled within the frameworks of the State Programme of the Republic of Belarus on Minimising and Overcoming the Chernobyl NPP Catastrophe. The main criterion defining opportunity of rehabilitation of contaminated territories with the contamination density for caesium-137 from 185 to 555 kBq/m2 is the prognosis for achieving individual dose exposure not exceeding the non-interference level of 1 mSv/year. Given account of this criterion, only in the Gomel and the Mogilev Oblasts there are 1,030 populated centres with almost 270,000 people (as of 1 January 1998).

The basis for solving tasks on rehabilitation of contaminated regions is the results of scientific research performed in the sphere of agricultural radiology, medicine, radiobiology, forestry, etc. With a view of effective solution of this problem, local rehabilitation programmes have been developed for the most affected regions. The said programmes are characterised by a complex approach to restoration of production and social facilities within each region taking into consideration factors of radiation-hygienic, socio-economic, demographic and psychological character.

In conformity with the Law On Legal Regime of Territories Affected by Radioactive Contamination after the Chernobyl NPP Catastrophe the territory of the Republic of Belarus is divided into zones depending on the magnitude of the average annual effective dose, radioactive contamination of soil with radionuclides and opportunity for obtaining environmentally pure products.

The evacuation zone is scattered on the area of 450,000 hectares in 15 regions and consists of territorially isolated parts where economic activities were terminated after the evacuation of 415 populated centres in the Gomel, Mogilev and Brest Oblasts. Agricultural land of the evacuation zone is characterised by highly uneven soil covering and fertility.

Three groups of land have been differentiated depending on the radionuclide contamination density. The first group is constituted by about 67,000 hectares of agricultural land dominated by loam and sand loam soils. They may be included into agricultural use at the first stage of rehabilitation. The second group of former agricultural land with the area of about 50,000 hectares can also be used in agricultural production, however, it will require significantly greater expenditures for land reclamation. As regards land of the third group, it is not expedient to plan its inclusion into agricultural use.

The alienation zone is located on the area of about 1,700 sq.km. Population from this zone was evacuated during 1986. The zone represents a territory which is the most contaminated with radionuclides and located in a compact manner adjacent to the Chernobyl NPP (Bragin, Khoyniki and Narovlya regions of the Gomel Oblast). The main territory of the alienation zone cannot be returned into the agricultural rotation even in the long-term prospect due to a high density of contamination with long-lived radionuclides.

In the alienation (evacuation) zone, activities are allowed connected with radiation safety, prevention of transfer of radioactive substances, performance of nature-protection actions as well as of research and experimental operations.

The Belarusian sector of the 30-km zone of the Chernobyl NPP with the area of 131,300 hectares has been turned into a State Radiation Environmental Reserve. The Reserve includes land of the Bragin, Khoyniki and Narovlya regions from which people were evacuated. It includes 38,600 hectares of the evacuation zone and 45,500 hectares of the people resettlement zone (together with the area of the adjacent reserve land, the forestry stock of the Komarin, Khoyniki, Mozyr and Narovlya forestry entities and road organisations). As a result, the area of the Reserve constituted 215,400 hectares. The Reserve is divided into 3 areas (Khoyniki, Komarin and Narovlya) and 16 forestry entities. The administrative centre is located in the town of Khoyniki, the scientific part and the experimental facility are in the evacuated village of Babchin and the department of radiation and environmental monitoring at Masany Research Station on the border with Ukraine, 11 km from the power station.

The Reserve is the largest environment-protection territory of Belarus solving tasks aimed at overcoming the consequences of the catastrophe including:

• prevention of transfer of radionuclides to the nearby territories (secondary contamination);
• radiation and environmental monitoring;
• assuring protection of reserve territories and facilities located in them;
• protection of forests against fire, diseases and pests;
• conducting of actions on maintenance of the hydrological equilibrium;
• assuring the natural development of the diverse live nature;
• conducting of scientific investigation of vegetation and wildlife;
• development of technologies for possible use of contaminated land.

The territory of the Reserve is a unique test ground for scientific research and putting into practice of obtained results. Considering the fact that forests occupy about 38% of the total area, much attention is paid to fire-prevention measures. Anti-fire strips 12 and 40 m wide are arranged as well as anti-fire water reservoirs and patrol towers; aviation patrolling is implemented.