False start of Chornobyl radiation and environmental biosphere reserve: the law has not been adopted, the decree does not function

The 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster was marked by the decree of the President of Ukraine “On creation of the Chernobyl radiation and environmental biosphere reserve”. This event caused a stormy debate both among experts and the public.

Please note that this decree comes into force only after the enactment of the law of Ukraine that regulates the issue of allocation of land plots of the exclusion zone and unconditional (obligatory) resettlement of people from the area contaminated by the Chernobyl disaster, nature protective regime of territories and objects of nature reserve fund created in the territory of such zones and abolishment of the requirement for the formation of biosphere reserves based solely on nature reserves and national parks.

It should be noted that on13/04/16, the draft law # 4437 was submitted by the President of Ukraine and identified as urgent for early consideration by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. At the session of the Parliament held on the eve of the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster on 20-21 April 2016, the draft law did not receive enough votes to be included in the agenda.

After analysis of the draft law EPL believes that the draft law needs substantial revision to study the impact of its adoption on human health and ecosystems because of the following:

1. Any change in legal regulation of the territory contaminated by the Chernobyl disaster should occur in compliance with the objectives of the Law of Ukraine “On legal regime of the area contaminated by the Chernobyl disaster”: reducing impact of radiation exposure on human health and the environmental system, which is achieved by setting regimes of use and protection of the territory.
2. The purpose of the draft law does not make it clear how the reduction of radiation impact on human health and environmental systems will be achieved through the proposed changes.
3. The draft law cannot be adopted without development of the national program of using the territory affected by radiation contamination as a result of the Chornobyl disaster to ensure safety of human health and environmental systems.
4. It is acceptable to approve projects of land arrangement in the exclusion zone if this is done purely for scientific research of this territory. However, this is not clear from the proposed changes.
5. Refusal of the state from results of scientific research is unacceptable.
6. It is not acceptable to issue permits for special water use without analysis of impact of such water on human health and environmental safety related to Chornobyl zone.

Having analyzed the draft law, EPL considers that the draft law needs serious improvement in terms of studying the impact of its adoption on human health and safety of environmental systems and cannot be adopted in the version that was submitted to the Parliament of Ukraine. Therefore, the decree will not come into force. Thus, it is too earlier to speak about creation of Chornobyl radiation and environmental biosphere reserve.