State supervision of nuclear safety to be enhanced

Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers on Nov. 13, 2013 adopted the Resolution "Approval of Procedure for state supervision over compliance with nuclear and radiation safety requirements", the Information-Analytical Bulletin of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine informs.

Experts say the order provides state inspectors on nuclear and radiation safety with the opportunity to use of grants of authority provided for in existing legislation. At the same time, the procedure approved by Cabinet will help reduce the regulatory pressure on business entities in the field of nuclear energy, provided there is strictl adherence to safety requirements and works have a negligible degree of risk for people and environment.

Government analysts say that the Cabinet allocated an additional 4.298 billion UAH (excluding VAT) to implement the Program to improve safety at NPP units in 2013-2017. This amount will be partially received from sale of electric and thermal energy produced at NAEC Energoatom facilities on the  domestic market.

Previously, the Cabinet also approved the approximate total funding for the Program – 12.5 billion UAH for the entire period of its validity through 2017.

Ukraine belongs to a few countries with a large-scale program of nuclear energy utilization for peaceful goals: in economy, medicine, science, and agriculture. In particular, Ukraine is ranked 4th in Europe and 7th in the world by the installed capacity of NPPs. In addition, Ukraine is realizing the ambitious plans to develop the nuclear-industrial complex: building of power units No 3 and 4 at Khmelnitsky NPP, centralized storage of spent nuclear fuel for Ukrainian NPPs, nuclear fuel plant, New Safe Confinement (Object Shelter), etc.