MOSCOW -- The Ukrainian government is seeking to register the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, site of a catastrophic nuclear accident in 1986, as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site, according to the Ukrainian Culture and Information Policy Ministry.
The ministry plans to add the site to a tentative list of domestic candidates by the end of March in preparation for an application to the UNESCO.
As April 26 marks the 35th anniversary of the accident, the ministry aims to preserve the memory of the tragedy for future generations in an effort to prevent a similar incident from occurring again.
The accident involved explosions in the No. 4 reactor, which scattered a large amount of radioactive material into the atmosphere. About 30 people, including workers and residents of the area, were killed, and some 350,000 more were evacuated, according to the World Nuclear Association.
The incident, which is believed to have been caused by structural defects with the facility and worker error, was rated a Level 7 "major accident," the maximum severity on the The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES).
The No. 4 reactor has since been sealed with a concrete and steel sarcophagus to prevent the spread of radioactive contamination. People are still not permitted to live within a 30-kilometer radius around the plant.
However, since radiation levels have dropped in some areas, the Ukrainian government has been working to make the plant and abandoned city a tourist destination while keeping safety as a top priority. More than 120,000 people visited Chernobyl in 2019.
Other World Heritage sites that stand as a testament to the threat of radiation include the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima and the Bikini Atoll Nuclear Test Site in the Marshall Islands, where dozens of nuclear tests were conducted in the Pacific Ocean.
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