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    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.

    From June till September this year personnel of the radiation safety shop (hereinafter referred to as the RSS) have been involved in the measurements of gamma radiation exposure in the near zone of the New Safe Confinement (hereinafter referred to as the NSC).

    The objective of the measurements was to analyze how much the level of gamma radiation has been reduced in the work area after sliding the NSC over the Shelter Object.

    To accomplish this task, employees of the RSS performed measurements in three vertical plane surfaces; each of them had 9 control points at the height of 30, 60 and 90 meters above the ground. The plane surfaces are located at the distance of 120, 256 and 355 meters from the Shelter Object, covering the whole work area.

    The measurements were performed with the use of electronic dose meter DMC 2000S manufactured by MGPI mounted on the drone.

    Gamma radiation levels in the control points were determined after processing the readings of dose meters with the use of the DOSIMASS program.

     

    Similar measurements have already been performed in the past - in 2003-2004 - by personnel of the Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants at the stage of development of design documentation for the NSC construction. The efficiency of the NSC arch radiation protection has been measured in comparison with these data.

    On October 11, the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of United States of America in Ukraine Marie L. Yovanovitch visited Chornobyl NPP with an informal visit. The main purpose of the visit was to obtain information about the state of New Safe Confinement (NSC) and Dry type Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility (ISF-2) construction projects implementation.

    During the visit Marie Yovanovitch visited the NSC's observation pavilion, showing the great interest to the details of the Chornobyl disaster and overcoming the accident consequences at the Unit four. Deputy Chief Engineer of Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant Mr Alexander Novikov and SIP Project Management Unit Director Mr Oscar McNeil answered numerous questions from Mrs Ambassador.

    Top Management meeting regarding ISF-2 Project was held at Chornobyl NPP industrial site on October 5. The meeting was attended by EBRD's Nuclear Safety Department representatives Mr Vince Novak, Mr Steven White, Mr Alexander Slavis and Mr Valery Kulishenko. Chornobyl NPP was represented at the meeting by Plant’s General Director Mr Igor Gramotkin, Safety Improvement Chief Engineer Mr Andriy Savin, Deputy Technical Director Mr Volodymyr Peskov, and by representatives of the Holtec Company Management, being the Project General Contractor.

    During the meeting held at the New Storage Facility construction site, the status of ISF-2 equipment testing and implementation of the comprehensive "cold" test at the facility was considered. Bank’s representatives also visited ISF-2 "hot" cell, where tests of cutting equipment and copying manipulators were conducted.

    At the end of the meeting, the meeting participants visited the New Safe Confinement construction site and were convinced that the project progress is significant.

     

    Representatives of the Working Group for Radioactive Waste Management and Decommissioning of the Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (WENRA) visited the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant industrial site for information purposes. The group consisted of specialists from Belgium, Spain, Germany, France, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden, Great Britain, Poland and Ukraine.

    Constantine Schefer, Deputy General Director for Institutional Supervision and Licensing, provided guests with information about the current activity at Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. During the visit, the group visited the construction site of the Dry type Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility, Liquid Radioactive Waste Treatment Plant and Industrial Complex for Solid Radioactive Waste Management, where they became acquainted with the technologies which will be used at ChNPP in the RAW management field.

    They also visited the NSC's observation pavilion and saw the first hand the project progress as well as former ChNPP satellite city Pripyat.

     

    1. Training in robot-manipulator BROKK-180 handling
    2. Works on New Safe Confinement project are running on a scheduled basis
    3. Visit of the Delegation of the French Republic Senate
    4. Establishment of the Radioactive Waste Infrastructure is Ongoing at the SSE ChNPP Site

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