Chornobyl NPP chief promises to complete protection dome over power unit N4 this November
A safe confinement with a protection arc to be placed over the power unit N4 at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), which was demolished as the result of the disaster 30 years ago, is due to be completed in November 2016, said Ihor Hramotkin, Director General of the Chornobyl NPP.
"Effectively, we are now in the final phase of the creation of a safe confinement or arc. According to our plans, we must place the Arc onto the fourth power unit in November 2016," Hramotkin said in an interview with the Ukrainian edition of the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia Weekly (ZN.UA).
He recalled that of the projects currently implemented at the NPP as part of international technical aid the chief one is the Arc – a new protection structure over the fourth, destroyed power unit.
"It is probably is the most unique and difficult project. We need to build a new protection structure, have it assembled far from the fourth power unit, fit it with all necessary life-supporting systems before placing it over this power unit. No one in the world has ever moved a structure of such an enormous weight!" the director-general said.
The biggest difficulty was to find a solution that would allow not having to service these metal structures for the 100 years of using the Arc. Two very complicated projects are being simultaneously implemented at the current, final phase.
"Inside the Shelter Object, we are building side walls that will come out of the object and ensure air tightness of the Arc that will be placed over it. We are also finishing work within the Arc proper, assembling infrastructure and a technological block that will control life-supporting systems. ... After installing the Arc, we will finish the second stage of transforming the Shelter into an ecologically safe system and proceed to the third stage – the dismantling of unstable structures and removing fuel containing mass," said the Chornobyl NPP director.
"Today, ten years on, we have removed nuclear fuel from the reactors, unloaded spent fuel pools, and made the third power unit entirely free of fuel. Over the coming month, we will free the first and second power units from the damaged nuclear fuel that was spent during the operation process. Effectively, we have already removed the nuclear-facility status from the third power unit and will do so with the first and second power units this year," Hramotkin said.
The fuel will be placed in the wet storage facility for spent nuclear fuel; in the meantime, active efforts are underway to dismantle the machinery rooms and auxiliary equipment at the NPP, its chief said. "Over 70% of the equipment and systems have been decommissioned," said the head of the Chornobyl NPP.
