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    On 30th November, there was a regular visit of TEPCO's (Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc.) representatives to the Chornobyl NPP site. The Japanese delegation was headed by Mr. Shigemitsu Suzuki, Vice President of TEPCO.

    Experts from TEPCO visit the ChNPP site on a regular basis. The Japanese nuclear engineers are interested in experience of ChNPP in the field of the accident consequences elimination, and decommissioning practices as well. We have similar problems and issues. You will recall that the tsunami-induced nuclear accident happened at Fukushima NPP in 2011.

    Currently, TEPCO is dealing with the decommissioning of its own Plant — Fukushima NPP. This time the Japanese specialists visited the space under the Arch of New Safe Confinement (NSC) with the purpose to study remotely handling equipment, cranes and life support systems of the NSC.

    International Scientific-Practical Conference with a focus on discussion of the most relevant issues of the Shelter Object transformation into an environmentally safe system started at the Chornobyl NPP on the threshold of 32nd anniversary of the Shelter construction completion.

    Dismantling of the Shelter Object’s unstable structures will commence after the NSC commissioning that is expected next year. These works are planned to be finished by 2023. Such circumstances require now proceeding with the detailed elaboration of long-term measures on the Shelter Object transformation into the environmentally safe system. This is actually the main task of the Conference.

    The Conference was opened by Valeriy Seyda, Acting General Director of SSE ChNPP, and Oleh Nasvit, First Deputy Head of the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management (SAUEZM).

    The third planned training course for Chornobyl NPP’s personnel delivered by specialists of Belgian company Tecnubel in the field of "BROKK-330 maintenance: base level" was started.

    BROKK-330 Manipulators are used in ICSRM for works performance. The caterpillar-mounted manipulator of this model is located in a temporary storage for High-Level, Intermedium and Low-Level Long-Lived Radioactive Waste (RAW). It is intended to place RAW packages in storage compartments. Operator controls BROKK manipulators remotely using control panels and video surveillance systems.

    This is the first training course devoted to this manipulators model. Three earlier delivered training courses at Chornobyl NPP within 2017-2018 were aimed on improvement of the skills in handling, maintenance and repair of BROKK-180 manipulators, used for the Solid Radioactive Waste retrieval.

    On November 21, a regular emergency response drill took place at the Chornobyl NPP. Its goal was to check the preparedness and to practice emergency actions of personnel.

    Such drills are scheduled and conducted four times a year. In particular, this drill is considered as stress-test that summarizes skills of personnel received over a year. Stress-tests were developed following the analysis of the accident running at Fukushima NPP. Their distinctive feature is simultaneous failure of several systems of a plant at different facilities.

    “According to the legend, as a result of a high power earthquake – higher than a magnitude 6 maximum design earthquake – we suffered a destruction of structures and a storage pool for nuclear fuel at ISF-1. The earthquake also affected the safety of the Shelter Object, in which fuel-containing masses changed their position. To what extent this part is real, no one can say, but we hypothetically assumed it during the drill. Moreover, there was a complete loss of power supply that resulted in the plant blackout and mass failure of equipment” — Borys Spektor, Leading Instructor of the ChNPP Training Center, commented the drill legend.

    One fuel channel (FC) and one channel of control and protection system (CPS) were removed from the Unit 1 reactor. These works are carried out with a research purpose in the framework of working documentation development for the the second stage of the Project "Chornobyl Units 1, 2, 3 Final Shutdown and Preservation" (FS&P). Dismantling and processing of the channels has practical value for determination of duration for decommissioning activities, preservation and safe enclosure of reactors.

    Estimated term for FC & CPS channels dismantling and processing, according to the "Program of Units 1, 2, 3 Shutdown & Preservation Stage implementation" approved by SNRIU, until 2028. The Stage duration is determined, in particular, by the time of works execution in each of 3 reactors, containing from 1661 to 1693 FC and 227 CPS channels.

    1. Mass Spectrometry: New Experience from Lithuania
    2. Chornobyl NPP and The State Exlusion Zone Management Agency represent Kyiv Region at the First Forum of the Regions of Ukraine and Belarus
    3. Civil Protection Drill was held for Chornobyl NPP personnel
    4. New mock-up of Chornobyl NPP

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