On November 13-14, the ChNPP site has been visited by the delegation from the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI).

KAERI was established in 1959 as a unified vocational scientific and research nuclear energy institute of the South Korea and quickly gained a reputation of a center for research and developments in different areas.

The visit of KAERI experts was preceded by a trip of specialists from ChNPP and the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management (SAEZM) to the Republic of Korea.

The objective of that visit was to present Ukrainian experience in the area of ChNPP accident mitigation, its decommissioning, and RAW management. Besides, our experts got familiar with KAERI’s experience relating to development and testing of technologies for decommissioning of nuclear facilities, they visited a simulator for dismantling process assessment which combines 3D-modeling and remotely controlled mechanisms.

In the framework of this return visit, the specialists from Korea visited ChNPP site and other facilities and enterprises of the Exclusion Zone. The ex-First Deputy Chairman of SAEZM Oleh Nasvit told about visit details: “Our communication started already in autumn last year. The Embassy of the Republic of Korea approached the Agency on Exclusion Zone Management and requested to accept a delegation from KAERI. We arranged this meeting and the representatives of the Institute told us that an operating life of Korean nuclear power plants is coming to an end soon, and they are preparing for decommissioning.

Five years ago, the Korean Government together with KAERI had developed a program of preparing technologies for decommissioning of nuclear power plants. For that period, they had developed most of technologies, except for several ones that need to be verified using real facilities.

The Institute has expressed interest in finding such facilities since Korea has not such ones. They tested all their technologies only in laboratories, and now they would like to verify them in field conditions. They are interested precisely in this cooperation.”

According to Mr. Nasvit, a certain pilot facility will be created on the Chornobyl NPP site to verify the technologies developed by the KAERI specialists.