A few days ago the General Contractor of the project "Construction of a New Safe Confinement", NOVARKA, celebrated a kind of jubilee - 20 million man-hours of work at the site.

The unique structure of the Arch, exceeding in the sizes the largest stadiums and being the largest mobile arched structure in the world, is erected by professionals of more than 27 different nationalities. For example, for lifting operations it was necessary to resort to professionals from Azerbaijan, as theyhad the necessary experience of work with great loads after working on oil platforms; Italian climbers were initially engaged in works at height; cladding is arranged by Turkish company using German technology; Portuguese experts are engaged in the erection of formwork, etc. But, of course, the linking in the team are Ukrainian workers (2000 Ukrainian workers, of which more than 1000 workers are always present at the site).

On 25th September, the Chernobyl NPP was visited by a delegation of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Cooperative Threat Reduction Program team led by Mr. Gary Park, International Project Manager. 

The tour was arranged within the frame of a visit of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program team to Ukraine with the purpose to familiarize themselves with institutions which are receiving assistance of the U.S. DoD.

On 22nd September, representatives of regulatory bodies of Norway, Sweden and Ukraine made a technical visit to the Chernobyl NPP. In particular, the delegation included the representatives of the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority and Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as British specialists. The visit was held within the frame of the Swedish-Norwegian-Ukrainian Joint Initiative to strengthen the safety and security of Ukrainian NPPs that was declared during The Hague Nuclear Security Summit in March 2014. The delegation visited the ChNPP according to the agenda of The Third Coordination Meeting between Ukraine and the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority, which was held in Kyiv on September 21-23.

Executives of Bouygues Travaux Publics Company made a technical visit to the Chernobyl NPP on 9th September. The delegation was headed by the Bouygues Group Chairman and CEO Mr. Martin Pierre Marie Bouygues.

The top managers of Bouygues Travaux Publics visited the Shelter observation pavilion, where they met with the ChNPP Director General Igor Gramotkin, managers of Project Management Unit (SIP PMU) and JV NOVARKA. 

They received information about the New Safe Confinement construction project progress. In addition, the Bouygues Travaux Publics representatives visited the Arch assembling area, were familiarized with the peculiarities of the current stage of erecting the main facility of the ChNPP site, and expressed the satisfaction with pace and quality of the performed activities.