June 6 last Spent Fuel Assembly (SFA) was unloaded from the cooling pool of the Central Hall 1 and transferred to the wet type Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility (ISF-1).
It should be noted that before completion of the extended operational time, on April 14, 2016 the State Nuclear Regulation Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU) has issued the separate permit to SSE "Chernobyl NPP" to unload the damaged Spent Nuclear Fuel from Units 1,2 and to transport it to the "wet" type Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility (ISF-1) for safe disposal and storage.
April 23, 2016 damaged Nuclear Fuel was completely removed from Unit 2.
After SNF retrieval from ChNPP Units Chernobyl NPP goes to a qualitatively new level of activity - it completed the stage of preparations for decommissioning and enters directly into decommissioning stage.
As a result of SNF unloading status of Units 1, 2 will be changed – these Units will not be considered as nuclear installations – after relevant documentation registration and approval the Units will receive the status of Radioactive Waste Management Facilities, similarly to ChNPP Unit 3. The status of "Nuclear Facility" will remain be applicable to Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility (ISF-1), in which standard fuel from three ChNPP Units is stored.
New status of the Units will allow speed up and extend work in terms of the Units equipment dismantling and Chernobyl NPP decommissioning. This will provide a possibility to reduce operating costs, and therefore the burden on the State Budget of Ukraine, from which Chernobyl NPP is funded.
Information:
Significant delay in ISF-2 commissioning has led to the need to use ISF-1 CP as the main storage area for ChNPP SNF.
SNF was unloaded from the reactor core within the period 2006-2008.
Spent Nuclear Fuel removal from the Units was carried out in three stages:
- during the first stage unloading of Spent Nuclear Fuel from Unit 3 in the ISF-1 was carried out;
- during the second stage the fuel (except for the damaged) from Units 1, 2 was transported to ISF-1 and technology for damaged nuclear fuel safe management was developed;
- during the third stage the damaged nuclear fuel was removed from Units 1, 2.
In 2010 SNF has been completely unloaded from Unit 3. In December 2012 Unit 3 received status of a facility meant for RAW management.
Works on Units 1, 2 SNF movement to the fifth compartment of ISF-1 CP were started in December 2011, after "stress tests" completion linked with the events at NPP "Fukushima-1".
Unit 2 was liberated from standard spent fuel on November 30, 2012. Spent fuel transportation from the Unit 1 was started in December 2012, September 28, 2013 Unit 1 is completely free of standard spent fuel.
December 2013 - the technical design of the equipment and technology for specials canisters with DSNF stabilization, transportation and storage has passed the expertise.
Design for damaged SNF management was completed. State Expertise conclusion was received, tender was performed.
Phase 2 activity under the Contract No 430/63-14, dated 02.10.2014 with "ProgresGrup" for manufacturing of special canisters for DSNF was completed.
Manufacturing, certification and delivery of the wagon-container for SNF transportation has been completed. Amendment No 9 was signed with the company-manufacturer "Skoda" to change in funding for 2015 and postpone part of the work to 2016. Delivery of the over-packs to ChNPP site was made in accordance with the schedule.
Works on manufacturing and supply of the equipment and materials to remove DSNF from Units 1, 2 were performed.
Units 1, 2 are free of DSNF.
