On October 22, Chornobyl NPP was visited by engineers of the University of Bristol. Their task was to test the remotely controlled robots under the Exclusion Zone conditions, and one of such robots was a world famous Spot, a robot-dog, developed by the Boston Dynamics.

Unique features of Spot are that it can move in complex terrain (such as stones or debris), get over obstacles, walk up sloping surfaces and stairs, as well as get on its feet after turning over onto its back. Availability on its “back” of a special platform for installing the equipment potentially allows using the robot for remote radiation survey.

The visit to the ChNPP is commented by David Megson-Smith, a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher in the University of Bristol involved in the development of novel and new sensors for deployment of robotic platforms, which can be used in the nuclear industry:

“We came to the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone to use the robotic platforms for mapping the distribution of radiation, test our robotic platforms and build new networks of people. We’ve worked a lot with the nuclear organizations in the United Kingdom but we haven’t ever worked in the environment as difficult as here at the ChNPP.

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ChNPP will cooperate with the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) in field of radioactively contaminated materials decontamination.

The corresponding Agreement was recently signed by Chornobyl NPP.

According to Oleksandr Skomarokhov, Deputy Technical Director (for Radioactive Waste Management), within the framework of this Agreement ChNPP representatives using KAERI developed technologies and procedures agreed with KAERI will decontaminate fragments of concrete and metal contaminated with a wide range of radioactive elements.

“This is a mutually beneficial cooperation. KAERI has technical developments aimed at decontamination of contaminated surfaces, but is incapable to test these technologies on real rather than artificially contaminated surfaces, because such contamination does not exist in Korea at the moment. At the same time, Chornobyl NPP in process of decommissioning is looking all the time for tools and technologies that will allow, on the one hand, high-quality decontamination of materials, and on the other — significantly reduce the volume of RAW generated in this process. Thus, ChNPP site is a kind of laboratory test site for testing the technology proposed by KAERI specialists”.

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PREDIS Project (Pre-disposal management of radioactive waste) is aimed to develop and improve methods and processes for safer processing and conditioning of waste for which suitable or industrially mature solutions aren’t available at the moment.

This is a four-year project with the total budget 24 million euros, of which EC contribution is 14 million euros. The project is implemented by a consortium of 47 leading institutes and organizations from 17 European countries, including Ukraine - (participants: the National Science Center “Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology” (KIPT) and the Institute of Environmental Geochemistry of the NASU). The Project initiator is VTT Technical Research Center of Finland.

Prerequisites for such a large-scale project is the current situation, when more and more historical sites became subject to clean up, NPP’s fleet in Europe is moving towards decommissioning, and increasing amount of radioactive waste should be pre-processed before its final geological disposal.

During four years the project participants will consider and study innovative and state-of-art technologies to improve low- and intermediate level radioactive waste management, with an emphasis on processing of the metal materials, liquid organic waste and solid organic waste, which can be generated as a result of NPPs operation and decommissioning, as well as other production processes.

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Chornobyl NPP signed an Agreement with Finnish company "Fortum Power and Heat Oy" regarding joint pilot tests on radioactively contaminated water (RCW) treatment at Chornobyl NPP.

Fortum Company (Finland) is a developer of selective ion exchange materials, namely sorbents series CsTreat®, CoTreat® and SrTreat® with proprietary right and confidential composition.

Within the framework of the tests it is planned to purify radioactively contaminated water from radionuclides in a pilot plant using ion exchange materials developed by Fortum, to analyze the initial and purified media, and to prepare a report with the results obtained.

Before the Agreement signing in 2018 - 2019, the parties performed relevant laboratory tests. Their results confirmed the feasibility of these sorbents additional testing in a pilot plant. Besides, the pilot test program will be complemented with RCW pre-treatment and separation of organic compounds by oxidation.

Pilot tests will allow make a decision regarding the possibility to use this technology to process accumulated Chornobyl RCW, which volume is more than 20 thousand cubic meters.