Dismantling Chernobyl (Chornobyl)...

XVII.) CHORNOBYL NUCLEAR PLANT STARTS DISMANTLING EQUIPMENT FROM ITS FIRST REACTOR:

Ukrainian News Agency, April 13, 2007

http://www.ukranews.com/eng/article/37146.html

The Chornobyl Nuclear Power Station, a specialized state enterprise, started dismantling equipment in the control room of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant’s first reactor on April 5.

The information department of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant announced this in a statement, a text of which Ukrainian News obtained.

Before the start of the dismantling work, the Chornobyl nuclear power plant performed preliminary work in the area of financial accounting (breakdown of accounting entries) related to the equipment that is being taken out of operation and dismantled.

According to the statement,
the station intends to dismantle and remove up to 10 tons of equipment per day.

Such work will be performed simultaneously at the plant’s three reactors.

According to Valerii Seida, the deputy technical director in charge of decommissioning of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, the work in the control rooms of the three reactors will be completed in the 2020-2022 period at this pace.

After deactivation of the equipment, a decision will be made on the possibility of using every component or system in the economic sector.

If it is determined that it is inexpedient to use the dismantled equipment in the economic sector, it will be buried as radioactive waste.

According to Seida, the dismantled equipment can be useful as components and spare parts in the nuclear energy industries of Ukraine and other countries.

Since the Chornobyl nuclear power plant does not have sufficient capacities of its own for deactivation of the equipment, the plant has hired the Kompleks special state enterprise, which operates in the exclusion zone around the nuclear plant, to perform the work.

Since July 2004, the station has dismantled equipment of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant’s external facilities that are considered conditionally clean, thus allowing the plant’s personnel to gain and practice the skills necessary for dismantling and removal of equipment that could be significantly more contaminated.

There is about 50,000 tons of equipment in the control room No. 1.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the leadership of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant recently forecast that the winner of the competition for construction of a shelter over the Chornobyl nuclear power plant’s destroyed fourth reactor would be announced by March 2007.

The Chornobyl Nuclear Power Station specialized state enterprise performs work involving decommissioning of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant and transformation of the shelter over the plant’s destroyed fourth reactor into an ecologically safe facility.

The Cabinet of Ministers approved a national program for decommissioning the Chornobyl nuclear power plant and transforming the shelter over the plant’s destroyed reactor into an ecologically safe facility in March 2006.

The explosion of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant's fourth reactor in 1986 is the worst man-made accident in history.