The project is financed from IAEA Technical Cooperation fund and its budget can be varied or redistributed if necessary.

Project Objective:

Assistance in Chornobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) decommissioning and the Shelter object transformation into environmentally safe system, as well as creation of Comprehensive National Radioactive Waste Management Program and Action Plan.

Completion status:

Within the period 2016-2017, the project activity was focused on the crucial for ChNPP problems of Radwaste Management, particularly Liquid Radioactive Waste, radioactively contaminated water and ion-exchange resins and on supporting of the work implementation during the Chornobyl NPP Final shutdown and preservation stage. During the two years, 13 expert missions, workshops and meetings were organized in accordance with the agreed work plan, attended by more than 200 specialists, mainly from Chernobyl nuclear power plant, NPP Safety Problems Institute, SNRIU, SSR Institute “Chornobyl Center”, and others. 19 specialists took part in ten International conferences and workshops where they had the opportunity not only to study the existing best practices, but also to share ChNPP’s developments in field of decommissioning and Radioactive Waste Management.

List of activities performed:

The results obtained, their impact on the industry:

The work in field of RAW management is aimed on creation of an effective system for different types waste management at Chornobyl NPP. In particular, it is very important from the point of view of resource saving to select the technologies for salt water treatment without evaporation method. At present Chornobyl NPP uses an evaporation scheme for the radioactive waters purification, designed for the Unit in operation. It is necessary to select the technologies allowing an effective Chornobyl NPP radioactive waters processing using the other methods. After the technology selection it is necessary to perform pilot tests to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed technology and its suitability for use at ChNPP. During the project implementation, alternative purification methods were considered and technical specification for the pilot facility was developed. Work continuation is planned within the new project for 2018-2019.

Expert support is provided and further research is underway to select options for secondary waste management, obtained from the facility for RAW purification from transuranic elements (TUE). This is continuation of the activity launched in 2012-2015, within which a pilot facility for the liquid radioactive waste purification from transuranium elements and organics was created and technical specifications were developed, which were used as a basis for the industrial facility in the EC project U4.01/11C aimed on the industrial facility creation. Now work is under way to find solutions to manage a secondary waste from this facility.

Significant efforts within the project were aimed to support Chornobyl NPP decommissioning, in particular, expert assessment of the revised "ChNPP decommissioning program" in terms of compliance with IAEA recommendations, workshop for studying of successful international practices for reuse of territory and plans for Chornobyl NPP site and repurposing of existing buildings and facilities for industrial development in the field of radioactively contaminated materials, radioactive waste and SNF management. Developed by IAEA expert group proposals and recommendations for ChNPP plans will form the basis for Chornobyl NPP site industrial development optimization and its integration in the Ukrainian nuclear complex.  

The project is financed from the funds of the European Union in the framework of the Programme “Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation 2011. Part II”.

The Project general objective:

The Project objective is to improve safety and economic efficiency during management of all types of radioactive waste in Ukraine and, particularly, orientation of all kinds of works to minimize waste generation. Besides that, there is a long-term goal, i.e. continuous and safe disposal.

The Project objectives are as follows:

1. Optimization of the national infrastructure (transportation flow chart of radioactive waste management)
2. Investigation of radioactive waste burial and temporary storage sites in the Chornobyl exclusion zone
3. Comprehensive safety assessment of radioactive waste management facilities in the Chornobyl exclusion zone

The SSE ChNPP is the Recipient under Project U4.01/10C: the Optimization of the national transportation and handling infrastructure for radioactive waste management. The Project objective is to enhance safety at all stages of radioactive waste management in Ukraine through optimizing the national transportation and handling infrastructure.

To the extent applicable to the SSE ChNPP as the Recipient, the main tasks of the Project are as follows:

1. Recommendations for optimization and harmonization of the national transportation and handling infrastructure for RAW
2. Detailed designs for RAW standard containers
3. Draft designs of equipment for RAW management and transportation
4. Dissemination of project results and preparation of final report

The following project results were achieved:

The document "Recommendations for optimization and harmonization of the National infrastructure (transportation and technological scheme) for RAW" was developed.

"Technical Designs for standard RAW containers" and "Preliminary designs of the equipment for RAW processing and transportation" were developed. Also the following documents were developed:
- Explanatory Note for Detailed design: “Development of design documentation on container for liquid RAW management”
- Explanatory Note for Draft design: “Development of design documentation on shielded screen for RAW management”
- Explanatory Note for Detailed design: “Development of design documentation on reinforced-concrete container V=1.3 cubic meters in volume for RAW transportation, storage and disposal”
- Explanatory Note for Detailed design: “Development of design documentation on 20-foot steel container for RAW management”
- Explanatory Note for Detailed design: “Development of design documentation on redesigned reinforced-concrete container V=3.0 cubic meters in volume (analogue of KTZ-3.0, KZ-3.0) for RAW transportation, storage and disposal”
- Explanatory Note for Detailed design: “Development of design documentation on redesigned reinforced-concrete container V=2.25 cubic meters in volume for RAW transportation, storage and disposal”
- Explanatory Note for Draft design: “Development of design documentation on auxiliary equipment for RAW management”
- Explanatory Note for Draft design: “Development of design documentation on standard attachment unit to fix a reinforced-concrete container at mechanical transport vehicle”

Project implementation impact:

Ensuring functioning of the infrastructure for solid radioactive waste processing, which is necessary for the Chornobyl NPP decommissioning.

The Project is funded by the European Union under the Program “Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation 2011. Part II”.

Objective of the Project:

The common objective of the Project, a part of which is the Services Contract No.NSI/2014/348-291 dated 01.09.2014, is to establish the industrial facility for purification of the Shelter water and ChNPP liquid radioactive waste from dust-suppressing compound emulsions to the levels enabling to treat these wastes in the future at the Liquid Radioactive Waste Treatment Plant (LRTP) and also to reduce concentration of transuranium elements to the levels enabling to perform near-surface disposal of final product from the LRTP.

Implementation stages:

- Development of design documentation (including complete set of safety-based documents) of the industrial-scale facility for removal of TUE and DSC emulsion from water coming from the Shelter Object and from evaporator concentrate (hereafter, industrial purification facility);
- Assistance during expert review of the design documentation;
- Development of technical and tender documentation for delivery and assembling of the industrial purification facility;
- Development of conceptual design for secondary radioactive waste management.

The following Project results were achieved:

The Design of an industrial facility for purification ChNPP’s water and liquid radioactive waste from transuranic elements (TUE) and organic compounds (IPF LRW), including the Safety Analysis Report (SAR), were developed.

Based on the expert report of CS "Ukrgosstroiekspertiza" dated December 16, 2016 No. 00-1147-16 / 13, the IPF LRW Design was approved by SSE ChNPP Decree No. 57, dated January 26, 2017.

The Expert Report of the State Expertise of Nuclear and Radiation Safety of IPF LRW Design and SAR was obtained. According to the State Expertise conclusion, the main design decisions generally meet the Nuclear and Radiation Safety requirements.

The Detailed Technical specification for the Project Phase II implementation and Tender dossier were developed and agreed.

The Conceptual Design for the IPF LRW secondary waste processing was developed and agreed.

Impact of the project:

Implementation of the project as a whole will have a positive impact on improvement of the safety and cost-effectiveness of Radioactive Waste Management at the Chornobyl NPP and, in particular, radioactive waste minimization.

The IPF LRW creation will allow further processing of the drainage water and liquid radioactive waste at the LRTP, and to reduce TUE concentration to the levels allowing the LRTP final product near-surface storage.

Implementation of the Project as a whole in the long term is one of the elements of the "National program of ChNPP decommissioning and Shelter object transformation into ecologically safe system".