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    A final meeting of the Assembly of Chornobyl Shelter Fund (CSF) Contributors and a regular meeting of the Assembly of the Nuclear Safety Account (NSA) Donors took place in Kyiv on July 9, 2019. The Ukrainian delegation at these Assemblies was represented by the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine Ostap Semerak, Head of the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management (SAUEZM) Vitalii Petruk, Acting Director General of the State Specialized Enterprise “Chornobyl NPP” Serhii Kalashnyk, and Chairman of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU) Hryhorii Plachkov.

    At the Assemblies the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) presented updates on the work progress under the Shelter Implementation Plan including the construction projects on the New Safe Confinement (NSC) and the Interim Spent Fuel Dry Storage Facility (ISF-2).

    On July 10, in the Exclusion Zone the NSC was officially handed-over from JV NOVARKA, i.e. the General Contractor of this huge project, to the Client, i.e. the SSE “Chornobyl NPP”. The event was attended by the country's top leadership, representatives of the CSF’s donor-countries, officials of the EBRD, management and representatives of the SNRIU, SAUEZM, SSE ChNPP and NOVARKA.

    On 2-3 July 2019 a workshop reviewing results of ChNPP Cooling Pond decommissioning was held under IAEA support at the Institute of Hydrobiology of NAS of Ukraine and at the ChNPP industrial site, with experts from Ukraine, Japan and Great Britain participating in the discussion.

    The workshop has reviewed the results of surveys performed by Institute of Hydrobiology and Agricultural Radiology of NAS of Ukraine, Ukrainian Hydrometeorological institute and other scientific and research organizations of Ukraine. Experts once and again focused attention on the importance of accuracy of the monitoring performed by ChNPP specialists under the Cooling Pond Decommissioning Project.

    According to Fedir Lanskykh, the Leading Engineer of ChNPP Strategic Planning Department, most of the workshop participants have agreed about the necessity to carry on surveying the processes taking place in the Cooling Pond now when it's reached the design level of water and is in the decommissioned status, and in the future. This activity is of great scientific importance, since until these days there is no experience and scientifically confirmed data in the world practice on the decommissioning of engineering ponds of such dimensions, particularly in a situation when its water area and surrounding territories are contaminated with radionuclides.

    During July 3-4, the Belgian delegation has been working at ChNPP, i.e. the representatives of Tractebel company and Institute for Radioelements, IRE-Elit, which are the experts in radioactive waste characterization. The visit was held under cooperation program funded by the Government of Belgium between SSE ChNPP and a number of Belgian companies, namely Technubel, SCK-CEN, IRE-Elit, and Tractebel.

    Cooperation of the Chornobyl NPP with Belgian companies started in 2016, when under the Memorandum on technical cooperation with Belgoprocess company the collaborative works regarding quality management have been made and the risk analysis of the Program of Radioactive Waste Management on SSE “Chornobyl NPP” Site has been conducted.

    In 2017, the Government of Belgium allocated additional funds to the already existing program to train the ChNPP specialists in maintaining and repairing the BROKK manipulators being used at the Solid RAW Management Plant.

    On the 2nd July 2019, ChNPP hosted a visit of the European Atomic Forum delegation.

    European Atomic Forum — FORATOM — is the organization which promotes the development of peaceful use of nuclear energy, provides information and support in problem solving of the nuclear industry development, cooperates with governments of FORATOM member states and the European Parliament, and advocates the interests of the industry. Ukraine is the associate member of the European Atomic Forum since 26 June 2011.

    The delegation headed by Yves Desbazeille — FORATOM's Director General — visited the ChNPP site as part of participating in the Ukrainian Nuclear Forum conference.

    Since FORATOM supports nuclear power plants through their whole life cycle, it was important for the delegates to see the changes that took place at ChNPP site after the 1986 accident.

    On June 25, Chornobyl NPP hosted a delegation of the specialists from Ukrainian Nuclear power plants and Ecocenter enterprise. The objective of the visit was testing the developed by Chornobyl NPP instruments for sampling the ion-exchanging resins. This experience will be necessary for the delegation participants to be used at their enterprises.

    About the reasons why exactly ChNPP was chosen as the training location Olerksandr Skomarokhov, Deputy Technical Director for radioactive waste management, said: “Nuclear power plants of Ukraine have encountered the difficulties in the ion-exchanging resin sampling as such experience is new for them. The constraints are imposed by the dimensions of the premises, where the tanks for resin storage are located, and by the fact that the density of the resins increases depending on the depth of their location in the tank.”

    The ion-exchanging resins are able to settle over time. Due to this fact the sampling is complicated as closer to the bottom of the tank the resin becomes stiffer. The lower marks are at the level of more than 9 meter deep that’s why in order to take samples at the required depth, when the roofs are low over the tanks, it is necessary to extend the probe rod.

    1. A message about explosive device (UPDATED)
    2. What will a mural at ChNPP be like?
    3. The Message about an Explosive Device Turned out to be False
    4. Ignalina NPP Top Management Visits ChNPP Site

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