KIEV, April 23 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's president opened the country's first unit of a nuclear waste disposal center at the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the presidential administration said on Wednesday.

The Vektor unit will handle the decontamination, recycling and disposal of radioactive waste from areas contaminated by the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl station - around 90% of all waste - as well as from other parts of Ukraine.

"Ukraine's first safe waste disposal facility is being commissioned," the statement said.

President Viktor Yushchenko observed the unloading of the last batch of fuel from the Chernobyl reactor.

According to the country's emergencies ministry, the Chernobyl disaster produced around 3 million cubic meters of radioactive waste.

Estimates by international organizations as to the number of deaths caused by the accident at Chernobyl vary dramatically. Fifty-six people were reported to have been killed at the scene and another 4,000 died from thyroid cancer shortly afterwards. Several million more people are believed to have been exposed to different degrees of radiation.