On December 24, the Chornobyl NPP site hosted an emergency drill on "Aircraft crash on the Chornobyl NPP territory". The training was attended by Plant’s staff, representatives of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine and the Chornobyl town Medical and Sanitary Unit. The event took place under the supervision of inspectors of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine.
The purpose of the exercise was to practice the actions of the personnel in an emergency situation with the aircraft crash. According to the accident scenario, a helicopter crashed on the territory of the Plant’s industrial site. Elimination of the consequences of the alleged accident required involvement of Fire Brigades of the State Emergency Service, as well as the evacuation of two nearby office and industrial premises.
At the end of December, the project to train Chornobyl NPP specialists in operation, maintenance and repair of BROKK manipulators was officially completed.
BROKK equipment is used at the Industrial Complex for Solid Radioactive Waste Management. In particular, these manipulators are used for remote crushing, sorting and movement of the solid radioactive waste.
The training project lasted four years and was realized by experts from the Belgian company TECNUBEL (now Equans). Every year since 2017, the Belgian experts have delivered two courses of theoretical and practical training for the Plant’s personnel at Chornobyl NPP industrial site. The project is fully funded by the Belgian Government.
On 14 December, Ukraine and the world honour the Liquidators of the Consequences of the Chornobyl Unit 4 Accident.
The harsh and tragic reality that followed the explosion at the ChNPP Unit 4 led to a different perception of the world, because humanity has never known such a technological catastrophe before. Chornobyl has become a black mark for millennia to come.
On 30 November, a meeting of the round table was held at Chornobyl NPP, which was dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the Shelter commissioning.
The round table brought together over 30 scientists, engineers, and constructors, as well as operators of the New Safe Confinement and Shelter complex.
The purpose of the event was to focus attention of the Government of Ukraine and international partners on the need to consolidate efforts and financial resources on development of a follow-up plan of actions to further transform the Shelter into an environmentally safe system. Development and implementation of such a plan is a huge challenge because of uniqueness and extreme complexity of the works planned, both in terms of technical solutions and scope of financial resources needed.
“A lot has been done over these past 35 years [since the completion of Object Shelter — ed.]. However, everything that has been implemented is just a preparation to the most challenging and most important stage of Shelter transformation into an environmentally safe system — Phase 3 of the Transformation Strategy — that is, in particular, the dismantlement of unstable Shelter structures and management of fuel-containing materials”, — said ChNPP’s Acting General Director Valeriy Seyda in his address to the participants.