Useful Facts
Event 1 took place in March 2032. Event 8 took place at Easter in 2033. The events are all 8 weeks apart.
The Zone is regulated by the UK Government, and is nominally under the control of the Army. It is known that there is a military base near the disaster site, but it isn't known who commands it. Conspiracy theorists have long suspected that the UK security services, either MI5 or a spurious service not officially recognised, is also embedded in the Zone.
The existence of the Zone is a hotly debated topic globally. There have been 3 attempts over its lifetime to get the Zone administered by the UN instead of by the UK. The UK government has fended off all such attempts by pointing to historic examples of other disasters where the affected area was left under local control.
It is an open secret that the Zone houses underground research facilities doing work too dangerous to do near population centres. Officially the UK government denies this, but there are periodic protests across the UK regarding the possible risks.
UK GDP has increased around 14% since the emergence of the Zone. The UK has very rapidly become a global centre for scientific research.