On June 21, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine reviewed and agreed the draft Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to the National Programme for Decommissioning of the Chornobyl NPP and Transformation of the Shelter Object into an Environmentally Safe System", which provides for implementation and funding of the relevant activities during subsequent years and budgetary financing of the relevant activities until 2020. 

"In view of the recommendations of parliamentary hearings of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine over recent years, which constantly emphasized the need to update the National Programme, we developed amendments to the Programme that should be approved in order to implement the main measures for decommissioning of the Chornobyl NPP and transformation of the Shelter Object into an ecologically safe system. The fulfillment of these tasks will ensure the national security of Ukraine and will allow creating conditions for the protection of future generations from the effects of ionizing radiation and radioactive substances" — commented Vitaliy Petruk, chairman of the State Agency for the Exclusion Zone Management.

According to him, the updated National Programme will create legal grounds for further development and possibilities to fulfill the following key activities by 2020:

An important milestone in ISF-2 project implementation occurred on June 16, 2017. The comprehensive tests of technological systems equipment, namely, compressed air preparation and delivery system, have been started at the Storage facility construction site. This is the most important stage in construction of new Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility.

Comprehensive testing of the equipment started after successful completion of installation and individual acceptance tests of equipment. All works are performed according to the approved Test programs and without the schedule delays.

According to the information of the Radiation Safety Shop Shift Supervisor, on June 13, 2017, at 02.55 p.m. havy smoke was found in the premises 513/1, 509/1 at the elevation 19.5 of Unit 3. It was eliminated with involvement of the Fire-fighting crew No. 2 of SSE ChNPP. This incident didn’t have a negative impact on the radiation situation in Unit 3 premises and at Chernobyl NPP site.
 
At the moment the reason of the smoke occurrence is preliminarily established: smoking of unidentified person in an unauthorized place. An official investigation is under way. Additional checks were initiated to ensure compliance with fire prevention regime in Chernobyl NPP premises.

At the moment there are no nuclear fuel at Unit 3, there is no technological equipment in the premise of smoke occurrence.

A regular mission of the IAEA began at the Chornobyl NPP to review the issues related to technical solution of irradiated graphite management including selected options for containers and storage. Today, on the first day of work, international experts visited the ChNPP industrial site.

During the morning session, experts were provided with information on the current status of decommissioning as well as with the draft technical solutions developed by the Chornobyl NPP specialists on irradiated graphite management.

The experts also visited the restricted access area, in particular the Unit 2 central hall and Lot 0 Building located at the plant industrial site, the NSC observation pavilion and the town of Prypyat.

Within the next two days of the mission, experts and specialists of the Chornobyl NPP will review the experience of Germany and the United Kingdom in the area of irradiated graphite storage as well as the international project “GRAPA” related to an analogous subject, and provide preliminary recommendations on the technical solutions proposed by the ChNPP on irradiated graphite management, including the selection of options for containers and storage.

Last week a team of photographers from the agency of business photo, "The Gate", worked at Chornobyl NPP. The profile of agency activity is to show the very essence of companies, their missions and spirit via professional photo stories.

From May 22 till 25, the team worked with the power plant collective. From the very beginning two objectives were set for this project, namely:

1. To change the image of Chornobyl NPP from the enterprise that caused the accident to the image of a progressive, technology intensive company which has been carried out the activities and gaining the experience in RAW management that forms the basis for efficient actions related to mitigating the nuclear accident consequences. 

2. To convert the negative attitude of the public towards Chornobyl NPP into positive one and to replace the key associations “accident” with a new set of “technologies, safety, benefit”.

Within the project the photographers together with the central characters of their plots visited the LRTP and Shelter internal premises, spent a day on ISF-2 construction site, worked together with the Electrical Shop staff at the outdoor switchgear plot, took pictures of equipment dismantling in the Turbine Hall and even climbed the very top of NSC arch.

All this has become possible through the support of management of ChNPP shops, namely: Electrical Shop, Shelter (NSC) Operation Shop, Main Building and External Structure Operation Shop, RAW Management Shop, Radiation Safety Shop, Spent Fuel Management Shop and Safety Improvement PMU.  

The outcome of this project will be available on the official Facebook page of the agency.

Photo source: www.facebook.com/the.gate.agency