At a Glance

An explosion rocked a nuclear reactor in April 1986 at Chernobyl, creating the 'the greatest environmental catastrophe in the history of humanity.'While the site remains highly contaminated and uninhabitable, it is being transformed into a green energy facility.

The site of the world's worstnuclear disaster is being transformed into a renewable energy farm.

Chernobyl was once one of the largest nuclear facilities in Ukraine, but in April 1986, an explosion at one of its reactors and a subsequent leak of radioactive materials left behind an environmental and health catastrophe unlike anything the world had ever seen. It also created a massive wasteland that will remain so for millennia to come.

The fallout from the accident contaminated up to 75 percent of Europe. Two people died in the facility at the time of the explosion and 138 were hospitalized with acute radiation poisoning, most from the nearby town of Pripyat that was once home to 45,000 people. Twenty-eight people died soon after the accident and in the decades that followed, according to the United Nations' World Health Organization.

More than 30 years later, people continue to live in .

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The environmental impact of the disaster in Pripyat was unimaginable. Called "the greatest environmental catastrophe in the history of humanity" by the United Nations, the disaster left an area of 772 square miles .

Now, a Ukranium-German company is leading efforts to transform the area into a massive solar energy farm.

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A helped to significantly contain thecontinued fallout, making , Agence France Press notes.

“This territory obviously cannot be used for agriculture, but it is quite suitable for innovative and scientific projects,” Ostap Semerak, Ukrainian Minister of the Environment and one of the promoters of placing solar projects in Chernobyl, told AFP in 2016.

Solar Chernobyl spent an estimated $1.54 million on the solar installation built on concrete slabs above the contaminated soil. Company head Yevgen Varyagin told AFPthe project will be online within the next few weeks and will supply the energy needs forsome 2,000 apartments in the area. Eventually, the farmwill produce 100 times that capacity, Varyaginsaid.