Visitors to Ukraine who want to learn more about the Chornobyl disaster will soon be able to tour formerly restricted areas of the reactor. (Sergei Chuzavkov/Associated Press)

Ukraine will offer tours of the sealed zone around the Chornobyl nuclear reactor for visitors who wish to learn more about the disaster that happened nearly 25 years ago.

Chornobyl's reactor No. 4 exploded April 26, 1986, spewing radiation over a large swath of northern Europe. Hundreds of thousands of people were resettled from areas of  Ukraine, Belarus and Russia that were contaminated with radioactive fallout. Related health problems still persist.

A few firms currently offer tours to the restricted area, but the government says those tours are illegal and their safety is not guaranteed.

An Emergency Situations Ministry spokesperson said experts are developing travel routes that will be both medically safe and informative. The tours, for Ukrainians as well as foreign visitors, are expected to begin sometime next year.

Recently, a Swiss-based travel agency announced it would to take tourists to war-torn and isolated places, including Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, Somaliland and Sudan.

The agency, Babel Travel, partnered with Robert Young Pelton, author of The World's Most Dangerous Places and an avid explorer who runs a website, Comebackalive.com, the CBC's Amber Hildebrandt reports.

With files from The Associated Press

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