Legal regulation of nuclear and radiation safety during operation of nuclear power plants

The article examines the problems of legal regulation of nuclear and radiation safety that arise during the operation of nuclear power plants. On the basis of the legal definition of such legal categories as radiation and nuclear safety, radiation protection, which must be guaranteed by the state to human life and health, the main attention is focused on the analysis of the legal regime of lands as the basis of human life activities that have undergone radioactive contamination, which are legally classified as man-made polluted. The genesis of the legislation that secures the definition of these lands is analyzed, it is emphasized that these lands are the result of human economic activity, that is, it is about the consequences of anthropogenic activity, when highlighting the peculiarities of the legal regime of man-made contaminated lands, their division into radioactively dangerous and radioactively contaminated is taken as a basis. The mentioned lands, being in state ownership, cannot be transferred to private ownership, are included in the exclusion zone and the zone of mandatory (unconditional) resettlement of the territory that has undergone radioactive contamination as a result of the Chernobyl disaster. Residence and permanent stay of people in the territory of these zones is prohibited by law. Land plots located in the zone of guaranteed voluntary resettlement are also radioactively contaminated and are used in accordance with the procedure determined by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The amendments to the current legislation are analyzed separately, which relate to the inclusion of radioactively contaminated lands in the ecological network for the purpose of restoration and are related to the creation of the Chernobyl radiation- ecological biosphere reserve. It is emphasized that part of the territory of the reserve, created at the expense of the zone of exclusion and the zone of unconditional (mandatory) resettlement, being on the border with the Republic of Belarus, causes additional restrictions of its legal regime. In this case, we are talking about changing the purpose of a part of the relevant lands, which have been transferred to defense lands. The conclusions emphasize that lands that have undergone radioactive contamination need priority restoration, which today is carried out naturally. The legal mechanism for restoring the state of such lands is imperfect and needs significant changes. It is time to develop and approve the Strategy for returning radioactively contaminated land to economic use.