On August 20, 2021, the license was issued to Chornobyl NPP for implementation of the activity in the field of processing and storage of radioactive waste, existing and generating during the Shelter Object transformation into ecologically safe system (operation of the Confinement and Shelter Object complex) in presence of the managers from the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management, representatives of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the European Commission. This license will ensure the regulatory control for the ongoing operation of the complex and subsequent transformation of the Shelter Object into environmentally safe site.

This event was preceded by a huge scope of works, performed by Chornobyl NPP specialists, including rectifying of the deficiencies identified as a result of pilot operation of NSC Commissioning Stage-1 and implementation of the recommendations, specified in the Act of inspection survey, and others. In addition, the licensing became possible after the State Nuclear and Radiation Safety expertise of a set of documents, the main of which was the "Safety Analysis Report for the NSC-SO complex", the inspection to verify the completeness and validity of the information contained in the submitted documents and the ability of the SSE “Chornobyl NPP” to perform the declared activity, the obtaining of the license for processing and storage of radioactive waste within the operation of the ChNPP’s Confinement and Shelter Object complex.

“The one year pilot operation demonstrated that the level of ChNPP staff competence fully meets the highest requirements, both for works at such complex facilities as the NSC and for development of the required documentation. Today, safety is the main focus of all activities at the Chornobyl NPP. As a next step towards transformation of the Shelter Object into ecologically safe system, we have even more responsible work ahead of us – that is the development of the design for dismantling of the unstable structures as part of the "early" dismantling and, of course, the physical dismantling. We will again have to do things that no one has done before", — Valeriy Seyda, Acting Director General of ChNPP, said at the ceremony.

For information: The Shelter Object is a part of the Chornobyl industrial site together with a number of structures formed from the damaged structures of the former Unit 4 of the Chornobyl NPP, which has lost all of its functional properties, and the new structures and systems established after the accident of 26 April 1986 to control and manage the post accident situation, including mitigation of the radiation consequences of the beyond-design accident by eliminating nuclear and radiological hazards through the environment to the humans.

The Shelter Object should be classified as a surface storage facility for unorganized radioactive waste (a temporary storage of unorganized RAW, which is under stabilization and reconstruction). The Confinement is a protective structure comprising a set of technological equipment for retrieval of the materials, containing nuclear fuel from the Chornobyl damaged Unit 4, radioactive waste management and other systems, and is designed to transform this Power Unit into an environmentally safe system and ensure safety of the personnel, general public and the environment, which has no analogues in the world.

Lifetime of the confinement operation is 100 years. The confinement was built within the framework of the international project and for the money of the Chornobyl Shelter Fund, whose contributors were 45 countries, including the European Commission; the Fund was administrated by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development was., The Fund's activities were completed in 2020.