On September 21-22, Chornobyl NPP joined the organizing and participating in the international workshop "Spent Nuclear Fuel Management".
The event objective is professional discussion of spent nuclear fuel management and spent nuclear fuel aging management.
Spent nuclear fuel (hereinafter referred to as SNF) is fuel elements or their groups retrieved from nuclear reactors of nuclear power plants and other facilities. The fuel is classified as spent if it is not able any longer to support the chain reaction efficiently.
From 1977 till 2000 — when the power units generated electricity — Chornobyl NPP built up more than 21,000 fuel assemblies.
At the workshop ChNPP was represented by two speakers. Maksym Hrekhov, Head of SNP Management Department, told how Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant works with its fuel assemblies. In the presentation, Maksym described in detail the procedure of transportation, preparation for storage and storage of the spent nuclear fuel present at the NPP.
"During the electric power generation at Chornobyl NPP, a large number of spent nuclear fuel was built up. Our highest priority now is to move the fuel from the old storage facility to the new one, where fuel will be stored for the next 100 years. However, unfortunately, the full-scale war that russia has dragged us into is a very big obstacle on this way.
Over the past few years, ChNPP has honed the skills in handling nuclear fuel, and we are always open to share our experience at such events," Maksym Hrekhov summarizes the first workshop day.
Watch more: Nuclear Fuel Transportation: Process From A to Z
The second speech was "Risk-Based SNF Management in the Conditions of War". It was presented by ChNPP Strategic Planning Department Head Dmytro Stelmakh co-authored with Aliona Kuchynska, a licensing group engineer of SS "Atomremontservice".
On Friday, the workshop participants will continue presentations and discussions within the framework of round- table at ChNPP office centre in the town of Slavutych.
The organizers of event are as follows: Regional Development Agency, SSE "Chornobyl NPP", Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; SS"Atomremontservice"; Slavutych branch of NTUU “Igor Sikorsky KPI” and NGO "Ukrainian Nuclear Society".