KIEV, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- The number of visitors to the exclusion zone around the destroyed Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) has seen fast growth in recent years, a Ukrainian minister said on Tuesday.
At a press conference in Kiev, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Ostap Semerak said more than 63,000 tourists visited the Chernobyl zone this year, compared with some 8,000 visitors in 2014.
In 2017, some 49,000 tourists visited the Chernobyl zone.
The Chernobyl NPP, some 110 km north of Kiev, witnessed one of the worst nuclear accidents in human history on April 26, 1986. After the disaster, a large tract of land around the plant was designated as a forbidden zone and ordinary people were completely prohibited from entering it for decades.
As radiation levels decreased, the 30-square-km area around the plant was officially opened to tourists in 2010. The country has launched guided tours this year.
