On 26th April President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko visited the Chernobyl NPP site. The visit was made within the scope of events dedicated to the 32nd anniversary of the ChNPP accident.

The first facility visited by the President was an Interim Spent Fuel Dry Storage Facility (hereinafter – ISF-2). This facility is designed for the acceptance, processing and directly storage of spent fuel assemblies (nuclear fuel) accumulated at the Chernobyl NPP during its operational period. Currently all basic technological equipment has been installed in the storage facility and “cold” tests are underway.

At the ISF-2 ChNPP Director General Igor Gramotkin and Safety Improvement Chief Engineer Andrii Savin briefed the President on the work progress.

Following visiting the ISF-2 Petro Poroshenko put flowers to the monument to the Heroes of Chornobyl and presented state awards to the accident liquidators – the ChNPP employees. In his speech the President noted: “Just now I have examined the state of readiness of the Interim Spent Fuel Dry Storage Facility and only the principled position of the operators, under the strict directives of the Government, ensures the guaranteed quality and safety of operation of this crucial facility in the future.”

After that, a meeting on revival of the radioactively contaminated territories and improvement of the state policy in the field of radioactive waste management was held. Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine Andrii Reva, Head of the Kyiv Regional State Administration Oleksandr Horhan, Head of the State Agency of Ukraine on the Exclusion Zone Management Vitalii Petruk, managers of NNEGC “Energoatom”, Chornobyl Exclusion Zone and its main enterprises took part in this meeting. During the meeting Petro Poroshenko reminded that last week the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed in a first reading a Law “On Amendments made to the National Program of the Chernobyl NPP Decommissioning.”

“I am confident that those progress demonstrated over the recent four years was unprecedented. This is also recognized in the assessments of our international partners, donors, the EU countries, USA, EBRD” – informed the President and added that these changes will enable to continue the works on preservation of three Power Units; and to commission the new Interim Spent Fuel Storage Facility and radioactive waste management facilities.

In conclusion, the Head of the state emphasized that he is pleased with the recent changes in tonality of the meetings regarding the Chornobyl Issues: if previously this was all about the tragedy and memory of it, then now there is a clear understanding what to do and who is responsible for this”.