Following the Order of the President of Ukraine No.87/2020 on prevention of the COVID-19 spreading and pursuant to the Protocol of the extraordinary meeting of the Slavutych Permanent Commission on Technogenic-Environmental Safety and Emergencies No.15 dated 29.10.2020, the ChNPP Administration made a decision to switch the plant staff to a special working time pattern from November 2 till November 15, 2020.

Only operational personnel who provides the nuclear and radiation safety of the site and security of its facilities, and the personnel associated with life-support of SSE ChNPP facilities, will remain at their workplaces.

In addition, the Chornobyl NPP restricts the information visits of people from all over the world to the ChNPP site at least until November 30, 2020.

Moreover the ChNPP Administration will restrict international business trips of its staff and technical visits of international specialists to the ChNPP site.

On 29th of October, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France to Ukraine, Mr. Etienne de Poncins, and Economic Attaché, Ms. Mathilde Arjakovsky, made an official visit to Chornobyl NPP.

During this visit, Mr. Etienne de Poncins held a meeting with the ChNPP management and visited the New Safe Confinement (NSC) – a facility which was designed and constructed under the leadership of JV NOVARKA, i.e. Consortium of two French engineering giants – Vinci Construction Grand Projects and Bouygues Travaux Publics.

Mr. Ambassador expressed excitement about the hugeness and scale of the NSC, as well as about strength of spirit and professionalism of all those who were involved into its design and construction.

The SSE ChNPP First Deputy Director General, Mr. Valeriy Seyda, thanked the Ambassador of France to Ukraine for many years of efficient support of Ukraine in overcoming the consequences of the Chornobyl accident and the transformation of the Shelter Object into an environmentally safe system. He also expressed his hope for further fruitful cooperation.

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As for October 28 (15:00) 54 COVID-19 disease cases were confirmed among the SSE ChNPP staff.

Among them:
• 24 persons were discharged recovered
• 30 persons are under ambulatory treatment

Other 32 employees are self-isolated as they contacted the persons with positive PCR tests.

All employees are under the supervision of their family doctors.

47 PCR tests were made so far.

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On October 22, Chornobyl NPP was visited by engineers of the University of Bristol. Their task was to test the remotely controlled robots under the Exclusion Zone conditions, and one of such robots was a world famous Spot, a robot-dog, developed by the Boston Dynamics.

Unique features of Spot are that it can move in complex terrain (such as stones or debris), get over obstacles, walk up sloping surfaces and stairs, as well as get on its feet after turning over onto its back. Availability on its “back” of a special platform for installing the equipment potentially allows using the robot for remote radiation survey.

The visit to the ChNPP is commented by David Megson-Smith, a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher in the University of Bristol involved in the development of novel and new sensors for deployment of robotic platforms, which can be used in the nuclear industry:

“We came to the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone to use the robotic platforms for mapping the distribution of radiation, test our robotic platforms and build new networks of people. We’ve worked a lot with the nuclear organizations in the United Kingdom but we haven’t ever worked in the environment as difficult as here at the ChNPP.

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