The Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Aleksandr Vilkul officially visited the Chernobyl NPP and the Exclusion Zone on July 2, 2013. Under his visit, Mr. Vilkul held an offsite meeting in Chernobyl of the Inter-Agency Emergency Response Center for Coordinating Actions of Central and Local Executive Authorities, and checked preparedness of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone for fire season. The Chief of Defense, the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Vladimir Zamana, the Chairman of the Government Service of Ukraine for Emergencies Mikhail Bolotskikh, the Deputy Chairman of the Kiev Regional State Administration Vladimir Maksimenko, the Chairman of the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management Vladimir Kholosha, the SSE ChNPP Director General Igor Gramotkin, and the representatives of central and local authorities have participated in the meeting.

Upon completion of the offsite meeting, the Vice Prime Minister has visited Chernobyl NPP. At the Shelter Observation Pavilion, Mr. Vilkul got familiar with current state of the facility and with outcome of the project “Stabilization of Unstable Building Structures” aimed at improving its safety, following which he visited the construction site for New Safe Confinement, where active operations on the Arch assembling are being performed.