3/23/2001: CABINET OF
MINISTERS APPROVES
CHORNOBYL LIQUID RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING PROJECT The Cabinet of Ministers approved plans to construct
a liquid radioactive waste processing plant at the Chornobyl NPP site.
The project was designed by of a consortium of Belgian, French, and Italian
companies and recommended by the Ukrinvestekspertizy
central service.[1] The construction is expected to cost EUR 17.4 million ($31.2 million as of 5 March 2001) and is
being funded by the European
Commission as part of its involvement in Chornobyl NPP deactivation.
A tender for plant construction was won by BelgATOM
with Ukrenergostroy as the subcontractor. As of
December 2000 basic infrastructure and framework construction was reported
complete.[2] The plant is expected to be able to process 2500 cubic
meters of radioactive waste per year.[1]
Sources: [1] "Pravitelstvo utverdilo
proyekt stroitelstva na promploshchadke ChAES zavoda po pererabotke zhidkikh
radioaktivnykh otkhodov," UNIAN, No. 12, 23 March 2001. [2] "Yevrokomissiya
predostavlyayet 33,3 mln. evro dlya stroitelstva vblizi ChAES predpriyatiya
po pererabotke radioaktivnykh otkhodov," UNIAN, No. 10, 5 March 2001.
{Entered 5/25/01 RG}
3/5/2001: ENERHOATOM AND GERMAN FIRM NUKEM SIGN CONTRACT TO CONSTRUCT
WASTE TREATMENT FACILITY AT CHORNOBYL NPP On 5 March 2001, Enerhoatom and the German firm
NUKEM Nuklear GmbH signed a
contract to construct a radioactive waste treatment facility at the Chornobyl
NPP. The contract awarded NUKEM 33.3 million Euro ($31.2 million as of 5 March
2001) to construct the facility and will be funded by the European Commission as
a part of its involvement in Chornobyl NPP deactivation. Construction is
expected to last 29 months. The facility will provide services for the
extraction, conversion, and storage of solid radioactive waste at Chornobyl.
["NAEK 'Energoatom' i nemetskaya firma NUKEM Nuclear GmbH
podpisali kontrakt na sooruzheniye kompleksa po utilizatsii radioaktivnykh
otkhodov vblizi ChAES," UNIAN, No. 10, 5 March 2001.] {Entered 4/25/01 RG}
3/30/2000: RUSSIA AND THE UNITED
STATES TO ASSIST UKRAINE IN WASTE CLEANUP For more information, please see the
3/30/2000
entry in Ukraine: Spent Fuel and Radioactive
Waste Developments.
{Entered 5/17/2000, GD} 6/96:TWO COMPLEXES TO BE
BUILT FOR HANDLING WASTE AND SPENT FUEL A top priority of the state program
for radioactive waste management is the development in 1996 of a plan for
handling waste and spent fuel in the zone around the Chornobyl NPP. In
the 30 km exclusion zone around Chornobyl a project has been initiated
by the Ukrainian engineering institute Energoproyekt to remelt up to 100,000
tonnes of contaminated metals. This project requires the construction of
two complexes. The first one, to be built by a consortium including Siempelkamp,
Siemens, and KLB of Germany, is expected to cost about $30 million. The
second complex, based on Russian technology, will be used for more highly
contaminated metal. Recycling of metal following decontamination is expected
to provide additional funds for radioactive waste management.
[Peter Coryn, "Ukraine Government Passes Waste Plan, But
Hitch Delays Implementation," Nuclear Fuel, 3 June 1996.]
4/30/96: CHORNOBYL ZONE WILL ACCOUNT FOR 69% OF UKRAINE'S
RADIOACTIVE WASTE It was estimated that by 2025, the Chornobyl zone will account
for 69% of Ukraine's radioactive waste, with the Chornobyl sarcophagus
accounting for 25%. The other nuclear power plants will only account for
5% of the country's nuclear waste and industry, medicine, defense facilities,
and other sources will account for 1%.
Sources: [1] UI News Briefing, 30 April 1996. [2] Peter Coryn, "Ukraine Government Passes Waste Plan, But
Hitch Delays Implementation," Nuclear Fuel, 3 June 1996.
4/19/96:BURYAKOKVA STORES SOLID WASTE In Buryakokva, a village in the 30 km exclusion zone, 30
trenches have been dug out in a strict geometric pattern, each one of them
100 meters long and 16 meters wide. Twenty-three have already been filled
with 22,500 cubic meters of solid radioactive waste. The trenches are designed
to be safe for 20-30 years. Two or three trenches have been filled a year
since the accident, but fewer trenches are being filled now due to a lack
of money.
[Leonid Kapelyushny, "Ten Years With Chornobyl," Izvestiya,
19 April 1996, p. 5, in "Chornobyl Poses Alarming Long-Term Dangers," The
Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press, 29 May 1996, pp. 10-11.]
2/96:NEW STORAGE FACILITY COULD BE BUILT IN CHORNOBYL A $200 million dollar grant from the EBRD designated for
Chornobyl may be used for construction of a new spent fuel storage and
liquid waste treatment plant. According to Derzhkomatom's Mykhailo Umanets,
the storage facility will be built at the site where Units 5 and 6 were
once scheduled to be built.
Sources: [1] "Chornobyl Closure Agreed-But Left Open Handed," Nuclear
Engineering International, February 1996, p. 2. [2] "Chornobyl Manager Questions G7 Plan," IDPR,
29 November 1995, p. 13.
10/13/95: 95% OF THE UKRAINIAN NUCLEAR WASTE IS STORED
AT CHORNOBYL Mykhailo Umanets announced that Ukraine will build a nuclear
waste storage site on the grounds of the incomplete fifth and sixth reactors
at Chornobyl. He said that approximately 95% of the country's nuclear waste
is stored at Chornobyl and will continue to be stored there.
Sources: [1] "Nuclear Waste Depository To Be Built At Chornobyl,"
Interfax,
13 October, 1995. [2] "In Ukraine," Post-Soviet Nuclear and Defense Monitor,
31 October, 1995, p. 13.
7/20/95: TRENCHES ARE BEING USED AS WASTE STORAGE IN CHORNOBYL
ZONE In the zone around Chornobyl, 600-800 trenches are being
used as temporary waste storage. They contain more than 300,000 cubic meters
of waste, with total activity exceeding 300 Ci.
[Alex Brall, "Ukraine Passes Law on Radioactive Waste Management,"
Nucleonics
Week, 20 July 1995, pp. 14-15.]
7/1/95:RADIOACTIVE WASTE LOOSE IN UNIT 4 Volodymyr Kholosha, the acting Minister of Chornobyl Affairs,
reported that there are 180 tons of radioactive materials loose in Unit
4. Yuriy Kostenko, the Minister of Environmental Protection and Nuclear
Safety, stated that the highly radioactive waste needs to be buried in
another, less dangerous place.
[Yanina Sokolovskaya, "Chernobylskaya Ruletka," Izvestiya,
1 July 1995, p. 5.]
6/95:SECOND SPENT FUEL STORAGE FACILITY WILL BE
BUILT AT CHORNOBYL The capacity of the Away From Reactor Spent Fuel Storage
(AFRSFS) facility at Chornobyl cannot accommodate all of the nuclear fuel
when Chornobyl is decommissioned. There is a new project under consideration
that would build a second AFRSFS site at Chornobyl. The fuel storage and
permanent storage facilities are planned for construction after 2020.
Sources: [1] CISNP discussion with Ukrainian nuclear official, June
1995. [2] A. F. Linyov, "Shcho Robyty z Yadernymy Vidkhodamy?,"
Zeleny
Svit, April 1995, p. 4.
4/26/95: ALL-UKRAINE NUCLEAR WASTE DEPOSIT SITE IS PROPOSED
TO BE BUILT AT CHORNOBYL. More than 19,000 nuclear fuel rods are stored on-site. These
fuel rods can be stored for nine years and then they must either be buried
in special containers or reprocessed. The State Committee for Use of Atomic
Energy has proposed the construction of an All-Ukraine nuclear waste
deposit site at Chornobyl.
[Intelnews, 26 April 1995; in "Chornobyl Aftermath
Revisited," FBIS-SOV-95-081, 26 April 1995.]
4/12/95:SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL AT CHORNOBYL At present, 400 tons of nuclear spent fuel are stored at
the Chornobyl facility.
["The Chornobyl Issue Still Stands," Holos Ukrainy,
12 April 1995, p. 2.]
2/95:NUCLEAR WASTE SHOULD BE REPROCESSED IN UKRAINE The State Committee for the Use of Atomic Energy is creating
a company to reprocess nuclear waste that will begin operation upon the
closure of the Chornobyl NPP and will concentrate on the nuclear waste
found there. Up to this point, the Ministry of Chornobyl Affairs has had
jurisdiction over the handling of nuclear waste. However, according to
Valeriy Starodumov, the question of nuclear waste has not received enough
attention and the result has been an inability to properly deal with these
wastes. This is also the case at the Khmelnytskyy NPP, where the liquid
waste depositories are almost full. According to a representative of Pripyat,
which has been the only Ukrainian company licensed to handle nuclear waste,
there is currently no clear-cut plan for dealing with radioactive waste.
Pripyat has concentrated its efforts to this point on the clean-up of Chornobyl.
It has come up with a plan, referred to as the "Vector Program," for long-term
storage of radioactive materials. It has also started to build stationary
receptacles for the waste. Separately from the Ministry for Chornobyl Affairs,
the Academy of Science's Interdepartmental Scientific Technical Center
(Ukritiye) also is looking into the problem of reprocessing nuclear wastes.
Sources: [1] "Derzhkomatom Sozdayet Predpriyatiye Po Pererabotke RAO,"
Vestnik
Chernobylya, February 1995, p. 2. [2] Serhiy Pichurin, "Pererabotka RAO, Po Kakomu Puti Idti?,"
Vestnik
Chernobylya, March 1995, pp. 1-2.
2/95: CANADIAN FIRM HELPS PROVIDE DRY STORAGE CASKS Officials at the Chornobyl NPP ordered dry storage containers
from Ontario Hydro.
[Thomas Cochran, Miriam Bowling, and Elizabeth Powers, "Difficult
Legacy: Spent Fuel From Nuclear Reactors," Nuclear Weapons Databook,
31 January 1996, pp. 25-27.]
7/94: UKRAINIAN PROGRAM FOR MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE
WASTE A general program for management of radioactive waste in
Ukraine is being developed. It has been suggested that a radwaste center
be constructed at Chornobyl with facilities for melting down metal, waste
incineration, compacting, and reprocessing. The German companies Siemens
and KAB will participate in the creation of a facility to remelt contaminated
metal.
["World Status Report 1993: Ukraine," Nuclear Europe Worldscan,
July/August 1994, p. 66.]
7/94:UKRAINIAN EXCHANGE WITH WESTINGHOUSE HANFORD
COMPANY AND SAIC Ukraine has established a technical exchange conference with
the Westinghouse Hanford Company and Science Applications International
Corporation. The exchange will enable Ukrainian scientists to study the
clean-up technologies and waste management system used at Hanford. Ukrainian
scientists will attempt to evaluate whether the techniques used at Hanford
are applicable to the clean up at Chornobyl.
["Westinghouse, Ukraine form technical exchange," Nuclear
News, July 1994, p. 58.]
1994: CONSTRUCTION OF 17,000-ELEMENT SPENT FUEL STORAGE
FACILITY WAS REPORTED AT MOSCOW SYMPOSIUM At an international symposium in Moscow, Chornobyl Plant
Manager Mykola Sorokin listed the construction of a 17,000-element spent
fuel storage facility among two pages worth of improvements already made
to the Chornobyl units.
["Umanets: Western Help On VVERs Means Chornobyl Close By
2003," Nucleonics Week, 1994.]
9/27/93:CHORNOBYL NEEDS SPENT FUEL STORAGE The Chornobyl power plant requires on-site spent fuel storage,
as do all RBMKs, since the reprocessing of this type of fuel was not perceived
by the Soviet government to be economically profitable and therefore, no
central reprocessing facility was ever constructed. Heorgi Kopchinsky has
stated that the storage ponds at Chornobyl are not sufficiently large to
accommodate all the fuel assemblies from Chornobyl "if and when they are
shut definitively and defueled."
[Ann MacLachlan, "Lack Of Spent Fuel Storage May Force Shut
Down Of Several Ukrainian Units," Nuclear Fuel, 27 September 1993,
pp. 12-13.]
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