Extended Licence given for the storage of highly radioactive waste at Chernobyl

Chernobyl gets six-year extension for work on original shelter

07 December 2023,  https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Chernobyl-s-original-shelter-gets-six-year-extensi

An extension has been agreed for the dismantling of the parts of the original shelter facility most at risk of collapse. The structure was built in 206 days following the 1986 accident at Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant. 

The licence for the storage of radioactive waste within the shelter has been extended from 2023 to 2029, with a 2025 deadline for the development of a new design for the dismantling of “unstable structures with an unacceptably high probability of collapse”, and a 31 October 2029 deadline for completion of the dismantling.

The Shelter Object – also known as the ‘sarcophagus’ – still contains the molten core of the reactor and an estimated 200 tonnes of highly radioactive material. The stability of the structure has developed into one of the major risk factors at the site. A project to shore up the structure was completed in mid-2008, but at that time the maximum life of the stabilised structures was determined as the end of 2023…………………………………..

The NSC is the largest moveable land-based structure ever built – with a span of 257 metres, a length of 162 metres, a height of 108 metres and a total weight of 36,000 tonnes equipped – and with a lifetime of 100 years has been designed to allow for the eventual dismantling of the ageing makeshift shelter from 1986 and the management of radioactive waste. It has also been designed to withstand temperatures ranging from -43°C to +45°C, a class-three tornado, and an earthquake with a magnitude of 6 on the Richter scale.

Because of its vast dimensions the structure had to be built in two halves which were lifted and successfully joined together in 2015. The process of sliding the entire arched structure from its assembly point into position over unit 4 was completed on 29 November 2016. The original licence, from the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine, for decommissioning was issued in 2019 following fitting out and more than a year of pilot operation and testing of the New Safe Confinement building.

December 11, 2023 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Belarus, wastes