Opening address

The scale of the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe as regards the environment, human health and socioeconomic development has been enormous. One twelfth of the entire territory of Ukraine has, in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, been designated as radioactively contaminated, that is an area of 53 500 km2. There are 2293 settlements located on this territory. Today, there are more than 2.2 million people living on this territory. Virtually all of Ukraine's forest tract, covering 16% of its total area, has been subjected to radioactive contamination. I shall not dwell any more on the details of specific figures characterizing the scale of the radioecological consequences that echo those in the reports from the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, because they have been published often in official documents and scientific publications. However, there is a fundamental difference in how the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe are being overcome in Ukraine. This is because the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and its 'shelter', which has already been covering the nuclear accident site for 19 years, are located on Ukrainian soil. For many years, world attention has been focused on how the consequences of the accident are being dealt with on these sites. On the whole, in the 19 years that have passed since the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the radiation situation in the contaminated areas of Ukraine has improved. This has been helped both by natural processes and by the implementation of a programme of protective measures, by decontamination work, the introduction of countermeasures in agricultural production, and so on. The situation has to a certain degree stabilized and is reliably controlled by monitoring systems such that we can now make a balanced evaluation of the effectiveness of the countermeasures taken and plan further work