[5]: p.4–5 : p.49f.3 Initially, Soviet authorities declared an exclusion zone spanning a 30-kilometre (19 mi) radius around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, designating the area for evacuations and placing it under military control.

[6][7] Its borders have since been altered to cover a larger area of Ukraine: it includes the northernmost part of Vyshhorod Raion in Kyiv Oblast, and also adjoins the Polesie State Radioecological Reserve in neighbouring Belarus.

The Chernobyl exclusion zone is managed by an agency of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, while the power plant and its sarcophagus and the New Safe Confinement are administered separately.

[12][13] It has become a thriving sanctuary, with natural flora and fauna and some of the highest biodiversity and thickest forests in all of Ukraine, due primarily to the lack of human activity in the exclusion zone since 1986.

This predominantly rural woodland and marshland area was once home to 120,000 people living in the cities of Chernobyl and Pripyat as well as 187 smaller communities,[16] but is now mostly uninhabited.

The woodland in the area around Pripyat was a focal point of partisan resistance during the Second World War, which allowed evacuated residents to evade guards and return into the woods.

[7] After Ukrainian Independence, funding for the policing and protection of the zone was initially limited, resulting in even further settling by samosely (returnees) and other illegal intrusion.

[21] The higher levels are believed to be a result of disturbance of radioactive dust by the military activity[20] or possibly incorrect readings caused by cyberattacks.

[40] ("The Zone" and "stalker" derive from Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's science fiction novel Roadside Picnic, which preceded the accident but which described the evacuation of part of Russia after the appearance of dangerous alien artifacts.

On 16 February 2014, an episode of the British motoring TV programme Top Gear was broadcast, featuring two of the presenters, Jeremy Clarkson and James May, driving into the Exclusion Zone.

[44] In 2019, Chernobyl Spirit Company released Atomik Vodka, the first consumer product made from materials grown and cultivated in the exclusion zone.

[47] Despite police control, intruders started infiltrating the perimeter to remove potentially contaminated materials, from televisions to toilet seats, especially in Pripyat, where the residents of about 30 high-rise apartment buildings had to leave all of their belongings behind.

In 2007, the Ukrainian government adopted more severe criminal and administrative penalties for illegal activities in the alienation zone,[48] as well as reinforced units assigned to these tasks.

Plant personnel, 3,800 workers as of 2009[update], reside primarily in Slavutych, a specially-built remote city in Kyiv Oblast outside of the Exclusion Zone, 45 kilometres (28 mi) east of the accident site.

[53] In November 2007, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for "recovery and sustainable development" of the areas affected by the Chernobyl accident.

[62] The high feed-in tariffs offered, the availability of land, and easy access to transmission lines (which formerly ran to the nuclear power station) have all been noted as beneficial to siting a solar farm.

The researchers consider the production of vodka, and its sales profits, a means to aid economic recovery of the communities most adversely affected by the disaster.

Spots of hyperintensive pollution were created first by wind and rain spreading radioactive dust at the time of the accident, and subsequently by numerous burial sites for various material and equipment used in decontamination.

Zone authorities pay attention to protecting such spots from tourists, scrap hunters, and wildfires, but admit that some dangerous burial sites remain unmapped, and only recorded in the memories of the (aging) Chernobyl liquidators.

[69] "Twenty-five years after the Chernobyl meltdown, the scientific community has not yet been able to provide a clear understanding of the spectrum of ecological effects created by that radiological disaster.

[76] A reduction in the density and the abundance of animals in highly radioactively contaminated areas has been reported for several taxa, including birds,[77][78] insects, spiders,[79] and mammals.

[85][88][89] Strongly held opinions about Møller and his work have contributed to the difficulty of reaching a scientific consensus on the effects of radiation on wildlife in the Exclusion Zone.

[90][82] The populations of traditional Polesian animals (such as the gray wolf, badger, wild boar, roe deer, white-tailed eagle, black stork, western marsh harrier, short-eared owl, red deer, moose, great egret, whooper swan, least weasel, common kestrel, and beaver) have multiplied enormously and begun expanding outside the zone.

Studies of wolves, which are concentrated in higher-radiation areas near the center of the exclusion zone, may enable researchers to better assess relationships between radiation levels, animal health, and population dynamics.

Some accounts refer to the reappearance of extremely rare native lynx, and there are videos of brown bears and their cubs, an animal not seen in the area for more than a century.

[105] In the aftermath of the disaster, radioactive contamination in the air had a decidedly negative effect on the fauna, vegetation, rivers, lakes, and groundwater of the area.

Overall, an assessment by plant biochemist Stuart Thompson concluded, "the burden brought by radiation at Chernobyl is less severe than the benefits reaped from humans leaving the area."

The infrastructure immediately used by the existing nuclear-related installations is maintained and developed, such as the railway link to the outside world from the Semykhody station used by the power plant.

the "Russian Woodpecker") is a former Soviet military installation relatively close to the power plant, consisting of a gigantic transmitter and receiver belonging to the Duga-1 over-the-horizon radar system.

[115] Located 2 km (1.2 mi) from the surface area of Chernobyl-2 is a large underground complex that was used for anti-missile defense, space surveillance and communication, and research.