Photo from UNIAN
The decree is designed to improve radioactive waste management and transfer the Shelter facility into an environmentally safe system.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed Decree No. 196/2018 on additional measures for the revival of territories exposed to radioactive contamination as a result of the Chornobyl disaster in 1986, on social protection of Chornobyl victims, and safe handling of radioactive waste.
Read alsoNew safe confinement over ruined Chornobyl to be commissioned in December – Poroshenko
The decree was prepared after Poroshenko's working visit on April 26 to the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), which was shut down in 2000, the presidential press service said on July 5.
According to the document, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine should create conditions for the development and rehabilitation of territories exposed to radioactive contamination, including within the Chornobyl Radiation-Ecological Biosphere Reserve.
The government was tasked to address problematic points of the legal regime of areas exposed to radioactive contamination and review ongoing restrictions and bans on activities there.
The Cabinet was also instructed to support the development of the Chornobyl Radiation and Ecological Biosphere Reserve through determining specific features of its management and functioning.
The decree also stipulates measures to protect Chernobyl victims. The government should resolve the issue of raising disability pensions of Chornobyl NPP clean-up workers and payments to their family members after the workers' death.
The decree is designed to improve radioactive waste management and transfer the Shelter facility into an environmentally safe system.