Safety improvements and decommissioning of Chernobyl NPP

Since 1995, IPSN and GRS have been working in the framework of the TACIS programme to support the Nuclear Regulatory Administration of Ukraine (NRA) for the licensing activity related to the different tasks to be done in order to implement an acceptable solution to the present situation of the former unit 4 of the Chernobyl site. In addition to the 'shelter' programme, the European Commission asked Western Technical Safety Organisations (TSO) to assist the NRA in the framework of the licensing activity related to the decommissioning of the Chernobyl NPP units 1, 2 and 3. These projects are well underway. There has been a large amount of work done by the Ukrainian partners as they have gradually accepted to elaborate the new Ukrainian regulatory texts on the principles of a safety assessment based on aims/objectives, and of a certain freedom in choosing the way of achievement of those aims, instead of the principle of rigid instructions of actions previously developed in the former Soviet Union. (author)