WANO Technical Support Mission on “RAW Management, Radiation Safety” started its work at the Chernobyl NPP on September 12. The main objective of the Mission – sharing experience in using techniques and procedures for sampling and characterization of solid RAW up to their conditioning/ immobilization, and receiving recommendations on sampling and laboratory studies of solid RAW.
Urgency of such topic of the Mission is determined by activities on the commissioning of Industrial Complex for Solid Radioactive Waste Management (ICSRM) at the SSE ChNPP. Today the ICSRM commissioning activities are to a wide extent complicated by duration of waste characterization at the process radiation monitoring system. This commissioning stage provides for management of non-uniform streams of radioactive waste retrieved from a “light” compartment of a solid waste storage facility with unknown radiation and physical parameters, their characterization and preparation of packages meeting the disposal criteria.
This is large and difficult scope of works that includes not just sampling of solid RAW from the storage facility, but also their characterization taking into account the requirements of “Radioactive waste acceptance criteria for disposal at the Engineered Near-Surface Solid Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility (ENSDF)” that have been established for RAW packages to be accepted for the disposal; development of nuclide vector factors based on data received during the characterization, and development of the respective procedures.
During the Mission the experts will discuss with the SSE ChNPP specialists problematic issues, share the relevant experience in the field of RAW characterization, and will be familiarized with the existing ChNPP RAW management facilities. The Mission will result in development of a report and recommendations which will help the Chernobyl NPP to address the respective problems.
Experts from Ignalina NPP, All-Russian Scientific Research Institute for Nuclear Power Plant Operation (VNIIAES) and RPE RADICO are taking part in the Mission activities. The Mission completes its work on September 15.
