The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted changes to the Procedure for the Use of Funds to Support the Safety of Chernobyl NPP and for the Appropriation of Funds in 2017 to Pay off the Contribution to the Chernobyl Shelter Fund of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The relevant decision was approved at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on 4th December.
Thus, the Cabinet reviewed the Resolution “On making amendments into the Supplement to the Procedure for the Use of Funds envisaged in the state budget to maintain the Power Units and Shelter Object in safe condition, and implementing actions on preparation for the Chernobyl NPP decommissioning”. Objective of adopting the Draft Resolution is to ensure targeted and efficient use of budget funds, state control and implementation of actions to maintain the Power Units and Shelter Object in safe condition, and actions to prepare for the Chernobyl NPP decommissioning under the conditions of expiration of the Document “High priority measures on the NPP decommissioning and Shelter transformation into an ecologically safe system”.
On 28th November the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine approved a Report on results of the financial audit of State Specialized Enterprise “Chernobyl NPP” (SSE ChNPP).
The performed audit showed that on the whole the financial and budgetary accountability of SSE ChNPP in 2016 ensures submission of reliable data on the budget revenues and spending. The shortcomings and deviations, reveled by the audit, have limited effect on the financial and budgetary accountability of the enterprise over 2016 and do not falsify information on its overall financial condition.
Generally, the enterprise ensured the targeted use of funds allocated from the state budget. In this respect, 888,400,000 Ukrainian hryvnias (99.9 %) were used from the state budget in 2016 from the allocated 889,700,000 hryvnias.
In addition to the above funds, the enterprise received 77 mln. hryvnias of target financing from the Social Insurance Fund and about 11 mln. hryvnias – owing to the international technical assistance. All sums, both of the received state target financing and international technical assistance, are reflected in the enterprise accounting.
The complete Report and decision of the Accounting Chamber on results of the financial audit of State Specialized Enterprise “Chernobyl NPP” are placed on the official website of the Accounting Chamber.
The official ceremony of placing the Arch of New Safe Confinement (NSC) into the design position took place on 29th November 2016. On that day the Arch covered the Chernobyl NPP symbol and memorial to the most expensive error ever made by mankind — i.e. Shelter Object.
“Many people had doubts, did not believe… But I congratulate you, My Dear Friends! Yes, we did it! Let today the whole world see what Ukraine and the world can do if united, — the most prominent phrase of the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko that was quoted by all news media of the world.
45 donor-countries joined their efforts with Ukraine to construct the NSC. They collected more than 1.5 billion Euros. 10,000 workers from 40 countries across the world, 5,000 out of them are Ukrainians, were involved into the project activities.
On November 24, an expert mission of the IAEA completed its work at the Chornobyl NPP. The mission was focused on the improvement of the radioactive waste (RAW) management system
During three days of work, IAEA experts made a series of presentations, held meetings, and visited the main facilities of the SSE ChNPP for RAW treatment: the Industrial Complex for Solid Radioactive Waste Management and the Liquid Radioactive Waste Treatment Plant.
Mr. Oleksii Miasnykov, Head of Integrated RAW Management Department, commented on the mission’s work: "The objective of the mission is to analyze the RAW management facilities that already exist at the Chornobyl NPP site, as well as the facilities that will be created in the future. It was necessary to consider the acceptance criteria for each of these facilities, verify their consistency and provide an overall assessment of the efficiency of the RAW management system at the Chornobyl NPP."
Active preparation for stage 3 of hot testing is carried out at the Industrial Complex for Solid Radwaste Management (ICSRM). This stage envisages management of heterogeneous batches of radioactive waste (RAW).
One of the important tasks under preparation is characterization, i.e. determination of radionuclide composition, of solid RAW coming for processing.
To perform activities relating to characterization, the eastern and western “low-level” compartments of Solid RAW Storage Facility were unsealed.