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    On May 21, 2021, with witness of Head of the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management Serhii Kostiuk, the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine handed over a Licence ОВ 001092 to the State Specialized Enterprise Chornobyl NPP to carry out the activity on radioactive waste (RAW) processing, storage in terms of liquid RAW processing, namely operation of the Liquid Radioactive Waste Treatment Plant (LRTP).

    Owing to this step, Chornobyl NPP can in full process and store the liquid radioactive waste generated at ChNPP during the operation of Power Units and at the decommissioning stage.

    During the awarding of the license, Head of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine Hryhorii Plachkov highlighted the importance of actions carried out within the ChNPP decommissioning and safe storage of spent nuclear fuel and RAW, and wished the enterprise top management and the Agency the continued success and safe work.

    On May 21, 2021, the SSE Chornobyl NPP Acting Director General Valeriy Seyda was handed over ЕО 000859/1/15 Individual Permit of the SNRIU by a Head of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine – Chief State Inspector for Nuclear and Radiation Safety Hryhorii Plachkov; the permit is for retrieval of standard spent nuclear fuel from the Interim Spent Fuel Wet Storage Facility (ISF-1).

    This permit obtaining enables the Chornobyl NPP to start the next important stage of ChNPP decommissioning – i.e. activities and operations for removal of spent nuclear fuel from ISF-1 and the spent fuel transportation to ISF-2 for the long-term storage.

    On 19 May, nuclear and radiation safety issues of Object Shelter were discussed during an online meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management.

    Participants of the discussion, in addition to members of the Committee, included Acting Director General of SSE Chornobyl NPP Valeriy Seyda, Head of the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management Serhii Kostiuk, Director of the Institute for NPPs Safety Problems Anatolii Nosovskyi, Chairman of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine Hryhorii Plachkov, and other experts on NPP safety.

    The meeting was primarily focused on the issues regarding probability of self-sustained chain reaction in fuel-containing materials (FCM) of Object Shelter. 

    Due to the news published in the media and wide public discussions of the potential risks of “an uncontrolled release of nuclear energy” from the fuel-containing materials located inside the Shelter after the NSC was put into the design position, we communicate the following.

    Following installation of the NSC Arch into its design position over the Shelter, certain IAMS sensors were tracking increase of neutron activity in the accumulations of fuel-containing materials (FCM) located in room 305/2 in subreactor slab melting area. This situation had been predicted by the ISPNPP before the NSC Arch was slid over, and was taking place due to drying of overmoistened environment of black lava-like FCM (LFCM) layer which is located higher (at elev. +9.00 ÷ + 9.70) than potentially nuclear-hazardous FCM (NFCM). ISPNPP experts predict that the NFCM will be further constantly contributing to the neutron activity level registered by the IAMS sensors. The total neutron activity will continue to slightly rise due to decrease of water content in LFCM layer located above the NFCM, until an optimal ratio of water and fuel is achieved. Should the environment be further dried, the neutron flux density is predicted to be slightly decreased or there will be abnormally long period of constant values of neutron flux density.

    1. The state of SSE ChNPP facilities during the period from 01 May 2021 to 10 May 2021
    2. OSCE representatives visited Chornobyl NPP
    3. Former Prypiat’s residents planted roses in Prypiat town
    4. ICCA: New Chornobyl support fund

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