2. Infocenter
    3. News

    On 26 August, physical works on the ‘hot’ testing stage 3 of the Industrial Complex for Solid Radioactive Waste Management (ICSRM) were completed.

    “Successful completion of testing is a very important step in the activity of Chornobyl NPP, — comments on the testing results Deputy Head of the ChNPP’s Radwaste Management Shop (for RW processing), Mr Illia Shumkov. ‘Hot’ testing is always quite a difficult process, which is preceded by a large volume of preparatory technical and paper work. Let me remind that we call ‘hot’ tests the testing which is conducted in the conditions which are similar as much as possible to the real operating conditions of the facility. During ‘hot’ testing, the staff and equipment work with the real radioactive materials. Beside other things, the 3rd stage of hot testing was more complicated because of the occupation of the plant and the connected suspension of the licenses for this activity.

    On 27 August, the general emergency response drill was conducted themed “Evacuation of staff from ChNPP buildings and facilities to Slavutych town in the event of a threat of seizure of the power plant”.

    The purpose of the drill was to practice the actions of ChNPP staff and contractors at the threat of power plant’s seizure.

    Based on the training scenario, there was a possibility of capturing the Chornobyl NPP site. Using the adopted instructions, the staff was notified of the threat and instructed on the follow-up actions. After that, the evacuation committee practiced their actions on identifying the number of necessary vehicles, the timeframe for evacuation as well as evacuation routes, and on the evacuation itself.

    On August 21, Chornobyl NPP transferred a batch of radioactive waste for disposal. This is the first batch since the ChNPP industrial site was de-occupied.

    According to a Deputy Head of RAW Processing Shop Illia Shumkov, in order to resume a full operation of radioactive waste processing infrastructure, a number of activities were performed to confirm the safe and correct operation of the equipment and systems involved in the RAW processing.

    “We carried out a check of the functional state of all equipment used in the technological process of forming a waste package, as well as preparing for and sending the RAW packages for disposal. The RAW processing staff passed the relevant training courses to resume the practical skills. The training with the last shift was successfully completed on August 14”, — comments Mr. Shumkov.

    A meeting of the licensing commission of Ukraine's State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate on 10 August made the decision to resume most of the licenses for Chornobyl NPP in the field of the Radioactive Waste Management.

    Just to remind, 3 months ago, after the long term occupation of ChNPP by the russian troops, the regulator suspended validity of the licenses and in fact paralyzed the ChNPP activities in the field of Units 1, 2 and 3 decommissioning, activities at Radioactive Waste Management facilities and certain activities in the field of nuclear energy use.

    On August 4, 2022, a delegation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia visited the Chornobyl NPP.

    Representatives of the Foreign Ministry, led by the recently appointed Chairman, Mr. Urmas Reinsalu, who during his first visit to Ukraine deemed it necessary to visit ChNPP, familiarized with the state of affairs at ISF-2 site, visited the observation pavilion of the "Shelter" object, as well as the protective building No. 1, where during the Chornobyl NPP occupation, russian troops kept captured soldiers of the National Guard of Ukraine.

    1. ChNPP changes its affiliation to the WANO Paris Centre
    2. Visit of the US Clean Futures Fund: continued cooperation and new projects
    3. IAEA Assistance Mission completed its work at ChNPP
    4. Emergency drills at ChNPP office in Slavutych are underway

    Page 20 of 117