Holtec International has announced that the second double-walled canister had been loaded with RBMK reactor used nuclear fuel into the Chernobyl nuclear power plant site’s Interim Storage Facility in Ukraine yesterday.

The first canister of used nuclear fuel was yesterday loaded into the Interim Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility (ISF-2) at the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine. ISF-2 is the largest dry-type used fuel storage facility in the world and has an operating life of at least 100 years.

The Chernobyl Shelter Fund has officially been completed after receiving non-objection for closure by the assembly of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The London-headquartered bank set up the CSF in 1997 to assist Ukraine in making the site of the temporary shelter over Chernobyl's destroyed reactor 4 stable and environmentally safe. The New Safe Confinement also aims to create the conditions for the eventual dismantling and decommissioning of the contaminated structure.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has provided Belarus with a mobile laboratory for assessing radiological threats associated with forest fires in the Polessie State Radio-Ecological Reserve, adjacent to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Recent fires in the exclusion zone did not lead to a hazardous increase in air-borne radioactive particles.

The recent fires in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine have not led to a hazardous increase in air-borne radioactive particles, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on 24 April. The State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine has regularly provided information on the fires through the IAEA's Unified System for Information Exchange in Incidents and Emergencies.

The State Emergency Service of Ukraine needs a "few more days" to extinguish the smouldering remnants of a fire "in and around" the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the head of organisation, Mykola Chechotkin, told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a daily conference call today. According to a statement from the President's Office, Zelenskyy has been receiving daily updates on the situation.

A forest fire on the western tip of the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine has not affected background radiation levels, state authorities said today.

Engineers at the UK's University of Sheffield have developed materials that they say could be used to help decommission the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear power plants. In the new research published today, they report their development of small batches of low radioactivity materials that can be used to simulate lava-like fuel containing materials. LFCMs are a mixture of highly radioactive molten nuclear fuel and building materials that fuse together during a nuclear meltdown.

A contract has been signed between SSE Chernobyl NPP and construction company Ukrbudmontazh for the creation of infrastructure for the early dismantling of the Shelter Object. This structure, widely known as the 'sarcophagus', was hastily constructed over the remains of the destroyed reactor of unit 4 in the weeks after the 1986 accident.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a decree that sets out plans to develop the Chernobyl exclusion zone as a site for tourism, including new walking trails and enhanced mobile phone reception.

The keys for the New Safe Confinement shielding unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were symbolically presented to the Ukrainian authorities yesterday, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has announced.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has led international efforts to transform the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Here, Balthasar Lindauer, director of the London-headquartered bank's Nuclear Safety Department, gives an insight into the change in safety culture at the plant.