Chairman of the SNRIU - Chief State Inspector for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of Ukraine Hrihorii PLACHKOV and IAEA Deputy General Director Massimo APARO opened the joint meeting of IAEA-Ukraine High Level Working Group on Safeguards in Ukraine and emphasized the importance of the event for both sides.

The meetings of the Working Group are held annually and become an official platform for discussing organizational and technical issues related to the interaction of the IAEA and organizations, enterprises and government agencies of Ukraine involved in the implementation of IAEA safeguards in Ukraine.

Ukraine carefully fulfilled the obligations under the Agreement between Ukraine and the IAEA for the Application of Safeguards in Connection with the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. This is confirmed by the fact that Ukraine obtained a broader conclusion upon the results of using IAEA safeguards. This means that no undeclared nuclear activities have been revealed in Ukraine and all nuclear materials are used for peaceful purposes.

IAEA inspectors and technical personnel carried out technical visits to NPPs. As a rule, installation, replacement and setup of remote monitoring equipment, testing of IAEA equipment were usually performed during such visits.

The state regulatory authority has been keeping the state information database of nuclear materials for 25 years to record information on the quantity and composition of nuclear materials in any balance area or in an individual enterprise.

The information on export supplies of agreed equipment and non-nuclear material from Ukraine was provided to the IAEA on a quarterly basis to implement the Additional Protocol to the Agreement. An annual information update was conducted under the Additional Protocol to the Agreement (34 declarations). The activity on collecting information required for responding to IAEA inquiries in accordance with the requirements of Article 2 (a) (i) of the Additional Protocol for Research and Development Related to the Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Non-Nuclear Material was carried out.

This year's meeting of the Working Group was joined by IAEA representatives: Head of Operations Division "C" of the Guarantee Department, Head of Section SGOC2, Inspector of Assurances and Chief Inspector for Ukraine; from Ukraine - representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine, the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management, the State Export Control Service of Ukraine, NNEGC "Energoatom", SSE "Chornobyl NPP" and the SNRIU.