Chairman of World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) Jacques Regaldo visited the Chernobyl NPP site on 15th November.
He was accompanied by Head of WANO Chairman Office Elisabeth Terrail, Director of WANO Moscow Centre Vasily Aksenov and representatives of NNEGC “Energoatom”.
The first facility of the ChNPP visit program was Interim Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel No.2 (ISF-2). The First Deputy Director General Valeriy Seyda in the company of representatives of HOLTEC International — Construction General Contractor — gave an information tour around the key units of the facility.
Later the guests visited the ChNPP Main Building, where they were familiarized with the decommissioning activities and plans for the future use of ChNPP constructions. In particular, in the Turbine Hall Valeriy Seyda familiarized the WANO representatives with a project on reconstruction of turbine generators’ boxes into radioactive waste storage facilities.
The guests also visited the New Safe Confinement construction site.
Director General Igor Gramotkin during a meeting with the delegation noted that the cooperation with the WANO is a very important area of international activity of the enterprise. Participation in the events organized by the WANO offers the possibility to share experience and involve professional and competent experts into addressing the ChNPP problems.
“WANO's role is not to promote nuclear energy but to stay focused on nuclear safety fundamentals. Relying on a strong, united and vigilant community, WANO's mission is to raise safety standards in operation all over the world,” — Jacques Regaldo, Chairman of WANO, remarked earlier.
Also Mr. Regaldo assured that when he comes back from Ukraine the WANO management will consider the possibility to expand activities of the Association in the area of decommissioning. First of all this is connected with the fact that in the near future a significant number of reactors will be shutdown and as time passed their number will only increase.
The World Association of Nuclear Operators was established in 1989. The Chernobyl accident was a prerequisite for its establishment. The accident forced operators to re-assess NPP safety problem and think of the necessity of international cooperation.
The Chernobyl NPP is a member of the Association since the moment of its establishment and remains a member after the shutdown in 2000 and start of works on decommissioning.
In 2011 the WANO adopted a special resolution on a status of ChNPP membership, according to which the Chernobyl NPP was assigned a status of membership without payment of contributions and taxes, but with the right to vote at WANO’s General Meeting.
