On 9 December, an online meeting within the EU-funded project “Support to the Management of the Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation in Ukraine” (INSC) was held on development of the Strategic Road Map for projects of the RAW Sector Working Group, with participation of the Chornobyl NPP management, as well as representatives of EC’s DEVCO, Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, Ministry of Energy, Ukrainian Science and Technology Centre, State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine, State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management, SE NNEGC Energoatom, SSE Radon Association, SSE Central RAW Management Enterprise, and SSE Ecocentre.
The Road Map is supposed to contain all the information needed both by the Government and the donors for decision making on the implementation of programmes and their sub-programmes and projects structured around priorities.
At the Donor Assembly of the Nuclear Safety Account (NSA), which was held online, representatives of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Ukrainian delegation informed the NSA’s donor-countries about the status of the international projects being implemented at the Chornobyl NPP site, particularly about the Interim Spent Fuel Dry Storage Facility (ISF-2) and the Liquid Radioactive Waste Treatment Plant (LRTP).
The Ukrainian delegation was led by the Minister of the Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Roman Abramovsky. Also this event was attended by the Head of the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management Serhii Kalashnyk, the Chairman of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine Hryhorii Plachkov, the Acting Director General of the SSE “Chornobyl NPP” Volodymyr Pieskov, and other representatives of the government delegation.
Mr. Abramovsky stated that Ukraine is interested in the successful implementation of the ISF-2 project and completion of the “hot” tests in due time; and Ukraine is making every effort to achieve this objective. This storage facility enables to proceed with the transportation of spent nuclear fuel from the old wet storage facility ISF-1 to ISF-2, and ensure its long term and safe storage. Commencement of the ISF-2 “hot” tests is a big win towards the nuclear and radiation safety of Ukraine.
By this time the second double-walled canister (DWC) has been filled with spent nuclear fuel (SNF). For this purpose, 93 spent fuel assemblies (SFAs) were transported from the old SNF wet-type storage facility (ISF-1) during the last days of November. According to the ChNPP SNF management technology, each assembly was cut into two bundles, placed into fuel tubes and then into the DWC.
Within the next two weeks the staff responsible for the ChNPP SNF management will seal the DWC: i.e. welding of the internal lid, gas and vacuum drying, filling the canister with helium, sealing of the internal lid, welding of the external lid, filling the space between DWC shells with helium and sealing of the canister’s external lid..
In the course of all these stages, the quality of sealing weld joints will be continuously monitored by visual check and liquid penetrant test of weld joints. Following the DWC filling with helium, air-tightness of the DWC vessel internal and external shells will be checked.
As a reminder, the first DWC was loaded into the ISF-2 concrete storage module on November 18 this year. As of December 1, 186 SFAs were transported from ISF-1 to ISF-2.
On November 30, 1986, the Deed of the State Acceptance Commission on commissioning of a protective structure above the destroyed Unit 4 of Chornobyl NPP was signed, it was named the Shelter object (hereinafter - SO). And this year is the 34th anniversary of the completion of perhaps the most dangerous and complex construction process in the history of domestic nuclear energy. Here are some interesting facts about the features of this facility, which for 30 years, until New Safe Confinement sliding, has become a physical barrier from the destroyed as a result of the accident Unit.
On November 29, 2016, the official ceremony of New Safe Confinement (NSC) Arch installing in the design position took place. This event was preceded by four years of hard and painstaking, without exaggeration - creative work of Chornobyl NPP team, the main construction contractor, NOVARKA joint venture (consortium consisting of two French companies: Bouygues and Vinci), a number of foreign and Ukrainian subcontractor organizations, research institutions at institutes.
To build NSC, 45 donor countries have joined efforts with Ukraine in a specially established fund administrated by EBRD and pledged more than 1.5 billion euros. In total, 10,000 employees from 40 countries, 5,000 of them Ukrainians, were involved in the project.
The ceremonial event was preceded by four years of the Arch structure construction, which was intended to cover Chornobyl Unit 4 destroyed as a result of the accident, and two dramatic weeks of NSC Arch construction sliding on the Shelter object. A huge structure weighing 36.2 thousand tons using the complex jacks system was moved along the special foundations for sliding 327 meters and installed in the design position.