IMAGINE in the modern age of burgeoning numbers, a human population forced to leave a vast tract of land — which is now the preserve of wild animals.

This has been the fate of the area affected by the April 26, 1986, catastrophe at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

Thirty years on, and after the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people, the site remains dangerous for humans because of the high levels of contamination; visuals available today have largely been captured by drones.

In terms of costs and casualties, Chernobyl was the world’s worst nuclear power plant accident. And yet, the International Nuclear Event Scale lists two disasters at its maximum classification of a Level-7 event; the second was the one which occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan in 2011.

The 30-year anniversary of Chernobyl has occurred during the final stages of completion of a giant £1.2 billion steel-clad arch that has been designed to enclose the site of the stricken reactor and prevent further leaks over the next century.

The Ukrainian prime minister has said that lessons dictated by that tragedy should be heeded all over the world — never was a truer word spoken. Nuclear energy comes with severe and irreversible risks that must be factored into any plans for power plants, particularly in countries where safety regulations and emergency response capacities are low — such as Pakistan.

Through licensed commercial nuclear power plants, Pakistan intends to generate some 40,000MW of electricity through nuclear power by 2050, according to the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission last year.

There is a nuclear power complex adjacent to Karachi. The idea of an accident is sobering indeed.

Given the country’s current situation of chronic power shortages, nuclear power has been highlighted as the best way forward. This may well be true, but it should not be thought of as a long-term solution.

Accidents can and do happen, and in the case of nuclear energy the results can be catastrophic and generation-spanning. Pakistan must strive to develop its capacities beyond nuclear energy.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2016