Workshop “Chernobyl NPP Cooling Pond at Decommissioning Stage: Ecosystem and Radioecological Research”, which was held on 12-13 October at the premises of Institute for Hydrobiology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, has been summarized. 

The Workshop was attended by representatives of ChNPP, IAEA, as well as Fukushima University (Institute of Environmental Radioactivity – IER) and University of Tsukuba (Center for Research in Isotopes and Environmental Dynamics – CRiED), and other organizations involved into implementation of the ChNPP cooling pond decommissioning project.

The Workshop’s objective is to analyze the current state of the ChNPP cooling pond with reference to the forecasts made at the stage of the development of the Feasibility Study (FS) for the pond decommissioning project.

In the course of the Workshop the participants presented their reports and exchanged views on results of the works on the radiation-environmental monitoring of the ChNPP cooling pond decommissioning, as well as the comparison of the forecasted and actual levels of external radiation dose rates on the drained areas of the pond, dynamics of aquatic environment quality and radionuclide contamination of its ecosystem components, dynamics of physical and chemical forms and radionuclide distribution in bottom sediments of the pond after its drainage. Besides, several issues on changes of hydrobiological state of the pond were considered.

Based on the reports’ results it was noted that the radiation-environmental monitoring during the ChNPP cooling pond decommissioning is performed according to the Monitoring Programme approved in the design documentation.   

It was stated that during the FS development the redundant conservatism of estimations prevailed. That is why, based on the results of the observations during the cooling pond decommissioning, most estimations and forecasts were not confirmed or confirmed partially. Also, based on the monitoring findings, there is no deterioration of radiation and sanitary-environmental state at the adjacent areas. The radiation-environmental monitoring activities are to be continued in future as well.