The "active phase" of construction work on a central used fuel storage facility at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is expected to start in March 2017, Oleksandr Rybchuk, general director of Atomprojectengineering said.

Construction has been completed of the dividing walls between units 3 and 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, against which the New Safe Confinement over unit 4 will be placed. Completion of the new cover is scheduled for November 2017.

The last damaged used fuel assembly from units 1-3 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was removed yesterday - from the cooling pool of unit 1 - and transferred to ISF1, a wet-type interim storage facility.

A crucial project at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant can now proceed to its final stages thanks to additional pledges by the international donor community at a conference in Kiev yesterday. On the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and President of the European Council Donald Tusk held talks by telephone during which Tusk underlined the EU's "comprehensive support" to Ukraine in overcoming the consequences of the disaster.

The European Commission today pledged to the Nuclear Safety Account fund the largest part of the €45 million ($51 million) expected from the G7 and the Commission in addition to the existing support. This fund supports in particular the safe decommissioning of units 1 to 3 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

A consortium of four German companies has been awarded a contract to improve infrastructure for managing radioactive waste, the rehabilitation of contaminated areas and the decommissioning of nuclear power plants in Ukraine.

SSE ChNPP said yesterday that the first 10 canisters for the dry interim fuel storage facility (ISF-2) had been delivered to the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. ISF2 is in the final construction stage under a contract Ukraine signed with US-based Holtec International in 2007. To be completed this year, it will be used to store all the used fuel on the site for at least 100 years.

A scientific study has for the first time demonstrated that, regardless of potential radiation effects on individual animals, the Chernobyl exclusion zone supports an abundant mammal community after nearly three decades of chronic radiation exposures. The study, conducted by scientists from Belarus, Japan, the UK and the USA was published yesterday in the journal Current Biology.

The 'western' and 'eastern' halves of the arch of the New Safe Confinement at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine have been joined together, SSE ChNPP, the state company tasked with managing the plant, said on 24 July.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has secured the funding required to complete the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement by the end of 2017. The giant structure is being built to cover the destroyed reactor 4 on the site of the 1986 nuclear accident in Ukraine.

Firefighters were today still battling to extinguish Ukraine's worst forest fire in 23 years, but state officials said its spread towards the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant had been halted. Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said yesterday that the situation was already under control and that there had been no changes to levels of background radiation.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine has officially entered the decommissioning phase, following approval by the country's nuclear regulator. The first phase of decommissioning is the so-called final shutdown and preservation stage, which is expected to take ten years.