A Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Jan Tombinski visited the Chernobyl NPP and Exclusion Zone on 30 October.
At the ChNPP industrial site Mr. Tombinski was familiarized with the progress of construction of the New Safe Confinement’s Arch and new dry-type Interim Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility (ISF-2), visited a Liquid RAW Treatment Plant (LRTP) and an Industrial Complex for Solid RAW Management (ICSRM).
The EU is one of the largest donors of the Chernobyl Shelter Fund (CSF) and Nuclear Safety Account (NSA), from which the NSC, ISF-2 and LRTP construction is funded, while the ICSRM construction has been funded by the EU in full. Besides, there are several other projects in the field of RAW management being implemented at the ChNPP site now and funded by the EU within the frame of the Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation (INSC).
Following the Chernobyl NPP visit, Jan Tombinski signs the Distinguished Visitors' Book: “It’s with lot of emotions that I visit the site of Chernobyl. Almost 30-years period has passed since the catastrophe on the Power Plant. And we all in Europe entered into an obligation to do everything possible in order to remedy the consequences to this tragic event. The European Union stands by the Ukrainian people and the Government of Ukraine in all efforts to ensure safety of this place.”
In principle, the visit of the Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine to Chernobyl was held on the occasion of the commissioning of a plant for wood incineration within the Exclusion Zone. “This plant is intended to help to have controlled maximum clean smoke over Chernobyl, as clean as smoke could be” – J. Tombinski said. He noted that a price of the furnace is more than 1 million euros. In total, the project has cost almost 6 million euros.
