From January 23 till January 27, 2017, a number of events take place at Chornobyl NPP in Slavutych in the framework of the IAEA technical cooperation project UKR9035 “Support to ChNPP Decommissioning and RAW Management”. The implementation of project is scheduled for 2016-2017 and it covers activities associated with support to ChNPP decommissioning, Shelter transformation into an environmentally safe system and establishment of national programme for RAW management.
The IAEA is represented by the manager of national project, Ms Katherine Deufrains, by technical officers in the area of decommissioning, RAW management, safety, area remediation, and by the invited special matter experts.
The main objective of the visit is to summarize the work results under project for 2016, discussion of plans for 2017, and activity scheduling for the following 2018-2019 cycle of technical cooperation.
In the course of the visit the IAEA team in the first place visited the key facilities of Chornobyl NPP and Exclusion Zone, namely: Interim Storage Facility-2 for spent nuclear fuel (ISF-2), New Safe Confinement, Liquid Radwaste Treatment Plant, Industrial Complex for Solid Radwaste Management, and "Vector" Complex. It allowed seeing with own eyes the work progress of decommissioning and RAW management activities as well as obtaining information on further planning of common work.
For discussion of activities under the IAEA project UKR9035 the Ukrainian representatives of project beneficiary and recipient have been involved, namely: the State Agency on Exclusion Zone Management (SAEZ), the SSE Chornobyl NPP, the SSE "Central Enterprise for Radioactive Waste Management", Science and Engineering Centre for Radiohydrogeological Field Research at the Presidium of the NAS of Ukraine. The discussion of common work in such extended format allows consolidating the efforts and involving all the concerned parties in the project implementation, as well as improving its efficiency.
After the coordination meeting two expert missions on the issues of radioactive waste management will take place, namely: "Review of the updated RAW Management Programme"; and "Review of dismantled equipment (small-diameter pipes with internal contamination) decontamination methods and recommendations on the possibility to use them at the ChNPP".
