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    On November 24, an expert mission of the IAEA completed its work at the Chornobyl NPP. The mission was focused on the improvement of the radioactive waste (RAW) management system 

    During three days of work, IAEA experts made a series of presentations, held meetings, and visited the main facilities of the SSE ChNPP for RAW treatment: the Industrial Complex for Solid Radioactive Waste Management and the Liquid Radioactive Waste Treatment Plant.

    Mr. Oleksii Miasnykov, Head of Integrated RAW Management Department, commented on the mission’s work: "The objective of the mission is to analyze the RAW management facilities that already exist at the Chornobyl NPP site, as well as the facilities that will be created in the future. It was necessary to consider the acceptance criteria for each of these facilities, verify their consistency and provide an overall assessment of the efficiency of the RAW management system at the Chornobyl NPP."

    Active preparation for stage 3 of hot testing is carried out at the Industrial Complex for Solid Radwaste Management (ICSRM). This stage envisages management of heterogeneous batches of radioactive waste (RAW).

    One of the important tasks under preparation is characterization, i.e. determination of radionuclide composition, of solid RAW coming for processing.

    To perform activities relating to characterization, the eastern and western “low-level” compartments of Solid RAW Storage Facility were unsealed.

    Chairman of World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) Jacques Regaldo visited the Chernobyl NPP site on 15th November.  

    He was accompanied by Head of WANO Chairman Office Elisabeth Terrail, Director of WANO Moscow Centre Vasily Aksenov and representatives of NNEGC “Energoatom”.   

    The first facility of the ChNPP visit program was Interim Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel No.2 (ISF-2). The First Deputy Director General Valeriy Seyda in the company of representatives of HOLTEC International — Construction General Contractor — gave an information tour around the key units of the facility.

    Later the guests visited the ChNPP Main Building, where they were familiarized with the decommissioning activities and plans for the future use of ChNPP constructions. In particular, in the Turbine Hall Valeriy Seyda familiarized the WANO representatives with a project on reconstruction of turbine generators’ boxes into radioactive waste storage facilities.

    On November 8, an Act on Facility Completion and Operational Readiness “Reinforcement and encapsulation of building structures of ChNPP Generation II functioning as NSC enclosure” (Construction of NSC Enclosure) was signed.

    The activities lasted 35 months. Mr. Oscar McNeil, Manager of SIP (Shelter Implementation Plan) Project Management Unit, emphasized that performance of this project gave an opportunity to ensure NSC Arch sliding in November 2016.

    In the opinion of Mr. Andrii Bilyk, Head of the Facility’s Admission Committee, Chief Engineer (Technical Director) of ChNPP, the conditions under which the activities were performed can be compared with those ones under which ChNPP Unit 4 accident elimination was performed in 1986: “People worked under extremely severe radiation conditions, but with a substantial difference that now all activities were carried out on a scheduled basis with observance of safety standards and requirements”.

    On 9 November, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Kistion visited the main facilities of the Chornobyl NPP. Igor Gramotkin, Director General of the SSE ChNPP, accompanied him at the site.

    The delegation inspected the former Arch erection site. The Director General briefly informed on feasible plans for its use. According to the Director General, the site could be the location for the Centralized Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel (CSFSNF) or serve as a reserve site in case of exhaustion of the main storage facility.

    The site has all the necessary communications and a specially prepared foundation, which withstood the load of a 36,000-ton Arch. Therefore this location of the CSFSNF could significantly reduce the costs of its construction and operation.

    1. Visit of TEPCO management — Fukushima NPP operator
    2. Minister of Ecology of Ukraine visited ChNPP
    3. Negative forecasts for the consequences of ChNPP cooling pond decommissioning not confirmed
    4. Gamma radiation in the NSC near zone decreased tenfold at the average

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