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.
On October 26 a single week training course on the advanced radionuclide activity measurement techniques was completed at Chornobyl NPP. Experts from the LOKMIS company (Lithuania) shared their expertise with ChNPP staff.
On October 25-26 the First Forum of the Regions of Ukraine and Belarus is held in Gomel, the main purpose of which is to present the economic potential of Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus. In this major event, which took an area of about 9,000 square meters, more than 150 enterprises present their professional experience, 57 of them represent 15 Ukrainian regions, and other 96 represent industries of Belarus. The Ukrainian delegation consists of 385 people, of which 180 are officials and more than 200 are businessmen and entrepreneurs.
On October 24 Chornobyl NPP staff participated in the plant civil protection drill on evacuation in case of fire. The scheduled activities took place involving outside organizations and were aimed at checking emergency preparedness of personnel and facility emergency departments and organizations.