Grammarly, an IT company with Ukrainian roots, has attracted more than $200 million in investments from venture capitalists Baillie Gifford and BlackRock, according to a press release from the company.According to the announcement, Grammarly has reached a valuation of $13 billion.Grammarly plans to use the investment to accelerate product innovation and team growth.“Grammarly’s latest funding round underscores the importance of our mission and the broad need for effective communication,” Grammarly CEO Brad Hoover was quoted as saying.The company will also continue to promote its natural language processing and machine learning technologies to provide personalized feedback to users around the world.“We’re delighted to partner with the team at Grammarly to democratize effective communication. As the world has digitized, people communicate more than they ever have – yet it has never been so difficult,” Peter Singlehurst, Head of Private Companies at Baillie Gifford said.“What attracted us is the company’s vision and the team’s ability to drive the product forward to help more people in more situations communicate better. Grammarly’s long-term and ambitious approach also aligns with our approach to investing. We look forward to many years of partnership with Grammarly,” he said.The company also said that the number of Grammarly employees has almost tripled since 2019, and thanks to the recently announced hybrid model of remote work, the company is hiring employees in the United States, Canada and Ukraine.Grammarly was founded in 2009 by Kyiv residents: Max Lytvyn, Alex Shevchenko, and Dmytro Lider. Its offices are located in Kyiv, San Francisco, New York and Vancouver.Grammarly is an online grammar checker service created by Grammarly Inc. It automatically detects potential grammatical, spelling, punctual, verbal and style errors. The service is available in a web editor, desktop app, as well as extensions for Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge browsers, mobile keyboards, and an add-in for Microsoft Office.
From 2023, Ukraine will have to store vitrified products of spent nuclear fuel reprocessing (high-level radioactive waste HLW) from Rivne, Khmelnytsky and South Ukraine nuclear power plants. Some time ago, the National Atomic Energy Generating Company ‘Energoatom’ sent this fuel to Russia.
This waste was recycled, and some of the radioactive materials suitable for reuse in industry or other fields were left behind. Unsuitable materials processed to an acceptable level of radiation safety will return to Ukraine.
The recycled waste should enter Ukraine in 2023. By this time, a special storage facility should be built in the Chornobyl zone, the construction of which should begin after the completion of tender procedures. The total amount of the contract for the construction of the storage facility exceeds UAH 4 billion.
According to the representatives of the Public Council under the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, the construction of the repository is taking place not only in violation of the deadlines set by the project documentation, but also in violation of current legislation.
According to the intergovernmental agreement, the start of import of vitrified HLW from the Russian Federation to Ukraine, after processing and aging, is scheduled for early 2023. First, HLW will come from the processing of nuclear fuel from NPPs with WWER-440 reactors (pressurized water power reactor delivering 440 MW of electrical power).
That is, it will be the return of recycled fuel from the Rivne NPP, because such reactors are located there. The amount of such waste is 260 cubic meters. And from 2025, HLW from the processing of nuclear fuel from Ukrainian nuclear power plants with WWER-1000 reactors will be imported. That will be the waste from spent and reprocessed fuel of Khmelnytsky and South Ukraine NPPs.
In total, not only 590 cubic meters of such HLW will return to Ukraine, but also more than eight thousand cubic meters of intermediate-level radioactive waste. In order to safely store this waste, three storage facilities must be built on one construction site, though.
In 2009, a law was passed, according to which the construction of each particularly dangerous nuclear facility – a new nuclear power plant or research reactor – takes place after the adoption of a separate law for each new facility.
This was done in order to ensure a wide discussion and involvement of people’s deputies in the adoption of such a serious decision. The same rule applies to repositories intended for the storage of spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive waste with a design shelf life of more than 30 years. This is exactly the case.
According to environmentalists, holding tenders for the construction of storage facilities in the absence of legislation is unacceptable. On August 11, 2021, the State Specialized Enterprise “Central Enterprise for Radioactive Waste Management”, which is under the management of State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management, for the fourth time announced a tender “Construction of a storage facility for intermediate storage of high-level waste (HLW), which will return from the Russian Federation after the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel of Ukrainian NPPs.”
The representatives of the Public Council also stressed that the approved project of the repository (held in 2019) without proper legal grounds is another gross violation of applicable regulations.
Given the current state of the issue and taking into account the need for additional research, the development of technical specifications for equipment important for radiation safety and their coordination with the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU), the construction may begin no earlier than 2023.
That is, even in the case of compliance with the design terms of construction (24 months) acceptance of HLW WWER-440 can begin no earlier than 2026. Besides, if we take into account the experience of construction of SNFS-2 (storage of spent nuclear fuel of “dry” type – a facility designed to receive, prepare for storage and direct storage of spent fuel assemblies and spent additional absorbers that have accumulated at the Chernobyl NPP, built in 2001- 2020), it is generally difficult to determine clear deadlines for the completion of construction.
In addition, according to environmentalists, there is a problem of insufficient funding for the construction of storage facilities for HLW. In accordance with current regulations, such storage facilities are financed from the State Fund for Radioactive Waste Management of Ukraine, which is replenished by ‘Energoatom’ at the expense of the environmental tax. In January-December 2020, the environmental tax amounted to UAH 1,015,004 thousand. At the same time, the estimated cost of the object is UAH 4,112,739,805 in 2019 prices (which will increase as of 2022 and in subsequent years due to inflation and rising resource prices). Even if the environmental tax will be accumulated only for the construction of the storage facility, at the end of 2023 the State Fund for Radioactive Waste Management will have funds in the amount of UAH 4,060,018,508.72, which may negatively affect the project completion dates.
As a way out of the situation, the following can be suggested:
First, it is necessary to recognize the existence of the problem at the state level.
Secondly, urgently consult with experts and the expert community.
Thirdly, promptly adopt the relevant law, conduct a qualitative environmental impact assessment, rewrite the terms of the tender, and so on. To do this, the National Security and Defense Council must work – this is clearly a problem of national security. And the Parliament. And the President who can file the law mentioned above.
According to https://greenpost.ua
Quotes of interbank currency market of Ukraine (UAH for $1, in 01.10.2021-39.10.2021)
The Verkhovna Rada plans to launch a nationwide targeted social program to provide Ukrainians with water through the development and reconstruction in 2022-2026 of centralized water supply and drainage systems in settlements throughout Ukraine, its total cost is estimated at UAH 57 billion. Corresponding bill No. 5723 on the nationwide target social program “Drinking Water of Ukraine” for 2022-2026 at first reading at a parliamentary meeting on Thursday was supported by 328 MPs with the required 226 votes.The existing issue of providing the inhabitants of Ukraine with high-quality drinking water is planned to be resolved through the construction, reconstruction or overhaul of water intake, water supply and treatment facilities, water supply networks and drainage systems, the construction and installation of post-treatment stations for drinking water, the creation of laboratories for monitoring the quality of drinking water and waste water.According to the annex to the document, in the territory of the country in 2022-2026 it is planned to build or reconstruct 290 water intake buildings, 280 water supply and treatment facilities, 79 post-treatment plants for drinking water, 1,100 water supply and drainage networks, as well as launch five water quality control laboratories.Financing of the program is planned from the state budget of Ukraine, including the state fund for regional development, the state fund for the development of water management and subventions for the implementation of investment projects, local budget funds, the funds of water supply and drainage enterprises, external and internal borrowings, grants from international organizations, funds from international programs, charitable contributions.”The approximate amount of funding for the program is UAH 28.59 billion, of which from the state budget – UAH 16.95 billion, from the local budget and other sources – UAH 11.64 billion. The volume of expenses required for the implementation of the program is determined annually, taking into account the possibilities of the state and local budgets in the formation of their indicators,” the appendix to the draft law reads.According to an explanatory note to the document, the implementation of the water supply program will allow consumers to receive high-quality services of centralized drainage and wastewater treatment, and industry enterprises providing services for centralized water supply and centralized drainage will receive an increase in profits from their activities.
The number of citizens’ complaints to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) in July-September 2021 amounted to 29,000, which is 13.7% more than in the previous quarter (25,500), according to a report on work with complaints from consumers of financial services, published on the regulator’s website on Wednesday. At the same time, number of written complaints in the third quarter increased by 18%, to 11,340, and the number of calls to the call center – by 10%, to 17,400.Most of the complaints from consumers relate to the work of nonbank financial institutions: 8,720 written complaints and 5,750 calls to the call center.One of the main reasons for the growth in the number of applications is Law No. 1349-IX on the regulation of collection activities, which came into full force on July 14, 2021.“It clearly outlined the rights of consumers of financial services and bans on the work of debt collectors. That is why citizens began to complain more often to the National Bank about the violation by debt collectors and lenders when settling overdue debts,” the central bank said.According to the report, debt management and unethical behavior of debt collectors and credit institutions is the most common topic of both written complaints (47% of the total) and calls to the call center (19%).In addition, in their written requests, consumers asked questions about loans from nonbank financial institutions (23%), relations on compulsory types of insurance (8%), bank loans (7%).At the same time, the topical topics of calls to the call center were loans from nonbank financial institutions (14%), issues of banknotes and coins (11%), relations under bank loan agreements (7%).According to the NBU, 45% of written requests had signs of violation of the rights of consumers of financial services.Among the problematic issues in the work of nonbank financial institutions is the accrual of interest over the loan period, fraud using lost consumer documents, problematic issues with insurance companies, tough methods of collecting bad debts.Among the problematic issues identified in the work of banks are also cases of fraud with customer accounts, the imposition of additional services, tough actions to collect bad debts.
Shebelynka gas refinery (Šhebel) has begun production of winter diesel fuel, according to a press release from NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy on Thursday.“From year to year, the interest of our consumers in Shebel fuel is growing. Therefore, the issue of quality and reliability of products is in the first place. We are working to ensure that Ukrainian drivers have a worthy alternative to imports,” Commercial Director of JSC Ukrgazvydobuvannia Serhiy Fedorenko said.According to the company, the maximum filtration temperature of Shebel winter diesel fuel is minus 25 degrees Celsius (at the norm of minus 20 degrees Celsius), the sulfur content is up to 6.5 mg/kg (at the norm up to 10 mg/kg), and the cetane number is 50 (at the norm not less than 49).In production of Shebel winter diesel fuel, additives from the German chemical concern BASF are used, the technological developments of which the company uses in production of other types of motor fuels (Shebel 95, Shebel 92 gasoline).“With the beginning of the winter season with lower temperatures, it is planned to put out the Arctic diesel fuel Shebel,” the press release said.As reported, Shebelynka gas refinery, after the completion of the scheduled preventive maintenance in October this year, switched to production of diesel with improved low-temperature characteristics.Shebelynka gas refinery belongs to PJSC Ukrgazvydobuvannia, a 100% subsidiary of NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy.
