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Chernobyl: New Safe Confinement and Spent Fuel Storage Facility

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Chernobyl: New Safe Confinement and Spent Fuel Storage Facility Chernobyl: New Safe Confinement and Spent Fuel Storage Facility 26 April 2011 marks the 25th anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Since then Ukraine and the international community have been working continuously on overcoming the legacy of the accident and converting Chernobyl into a safe and secure site. Today two major technical tasks remain: The first is to make the destroyed unit 4 environmentally safe. The second is to safely and securely store the spent nuclear fuel from reactors 1 – 3. This is the most important stage in the decommissioning of these units. The Shelter and the New Safe Confinement The purpose of the New Safe A longer term strategy was laid sets out a step-by-step approach, Confinement is to seal off the out by a team of Western and To select adequate technical destroyed unit 4 of the Chernobyl Ukrainian experts in 1997 in the solutions as data and information nuclear power plant and to allow Shelter Implementation Plan (SIP). on the structure are gathered. for the eventual deconstruction In the same year, the international The most spectacular and visible of the current structure known as community led by the G7 set up the project under the SIP is the New “shelter” or “sarcophagus” which Chernobyl Shelter Fund (CSF) at Safe Confinement, which will have was erected in the immediate the EBRD to implement the Plan. a span of 257 metres, a length of aftermath of the 1986 accident under The SIP defines five central tasks 164 metres, a height of 110 metres extremely perilous circumstances. to decrease the risk to workers, and a weight of 29,000 tons. It will This structure, for which a complex the population and the environment be assembled on site, but away stabilization program has been and to transform Chernobyl into from the highly radioactive unit 4, completed in 2008, was never an environmentally safe site for at and then slid into place, covering intended as a permanent structure. least the next 100 years. The plan the reactor building. It will protect Nuclear Safety web site Timeline www.ebrd.com/nuclearsafety 1986 1995 1997 ►► 26 April: Explosion of reactor 4 of the ►► G7/EU and Ukraine sign Memorandum of ►► May: G7/EU and Ukraine agreement on the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Understanding Shelter Implementation Plan (SIP); ►► April - October: Construction of ►► EBRD Nuclear Safety Account extended to ►► September: Establishment of the Chernobyl sarcophagus as a temporary measure. include the decommissioning of Chernobyl Shelter Fund (CSF) at the EBRD reactors 1-3. ►► November: First pledging event in New York ►► December: CSF becomes operational against the incursion of water shelter 2004-2008 with eighty per protection strategy and programme and snow and prevent the release cent of the roof load transferred to for workers are in place and an of contaminated materials. a new external support structure. emergency plan for accidents Extremely challenging tasks inside has been developed. State-of- The new structure will be equipped the shelter were also successfully the-art biomedical protection and with two cranes with a lifting capacity carried out, reducing the risk of screening programmes have been of 50 tons each. Dismantled shelter collapse. The stabilisation was installed and radiation protection components can be laid down or finished on-time and within the cost equipment has been procured. processed inside the New Safe estimate of about US$ 50 million. Confinement which will have a ►► Studies were carried out to assess It is the largest internationally- lifespan of at least 100 years. the site’s risks and assessed funded and completed the probability of criticality The contract for design and project at the site to date. incidents as virtually non-existent. construction of the New Safe ►► The necessary infrastructure has Measurement of neutron flux is Confinement was signed in September been put in place without which part of an integrated monitoring 2007 with the consortium NOVARKA, the construction of the New Safe system, completed in 2010, which formed by the construction companies Confinement could not take place. combines data on parameters Bouygues and Vinci. While the The future main construction area such as radiation levels but also detailed design is currently being has been fitted with road and seismic activity and the structural finalised, work on the foundations rail connections. Site services behaviour of the shelter. has already started. Work on the like power, water, drains and structure will begin as soon as the Financing of all activities under communications supplies have design receives regulatory approval the Shelter Implementation Plan – been comprehensively refurbished. from the Ukrainian authorities, including the New Safe Confinement expected in early 2011. ►► A new, state-of-the-art facility – comes under the Chernobyl for 1,430 workers has been Shelter Fund, established at the The New Safe Confinement is the built which offers medical and EBRD and with the Bank as fund most visible - and with a cost of radiation protection facilities and manager in 1997. As of end-2010, some two thirds of the total also an ambulance. In the neighbouring the Chernobyl Shelter Fund has the most expensive - but far from town Slavutych a hospital wing has recorded contributions of €864 the only task under the Shelter been refurbished and equipped. million. The Donor Assembly has so Implementation Plan. Among SIP far approved nine grant agreements tasks already achieved are: ►► Training courses have introduced committing €811 million to the a new safety culture among ►► Stabilisation of the roof and the completion of the project. the workforce. A radiological western wall of the Chernobyl 1998 2000 2001 ►► Year-end: Implementation of first projects: ►► May: Second pledging event in Berlin ►► April: Decision in principle on the design of Contracts for project management unit and ►► Year-end: Ukraine shuts down last operating the New Safe Confinement (NSC) engineering tasks signed; Chernobyl reactor (Unit 3). SIP implementation begins Interim Spent Fuel Storage Facility 2 The second major task at Chernobyl The project will use existing ISF-2 Processing Building is from a safety point of view by concrete storage modules and a no means less important. About building for the processing of the 10 years after the end of nuclear assemblies. Processing will include power generation on the site the cutting, drying and fitting of spent Interim Spent Fuel Storage Facility fuel into storage containers. 2 (ISF-2) will provide a crucial The contract to design and component of a preparatory stage for complete the facility was signed the decommissioning of units 1-3. with the American company Holtec Spent fuel is currently stored at the in September 2007. The design site in an interim wet storage facility of the new facility was approved constructed in Soviet times (ISF1) and by the Ukrainian regulator in late- in pools in the units. Some spent fuel is 2010. Work can commence once still stored in the fuel ponds inside the the contract amendment for the three units, which means that certain implementation is signed. It is safety and operational functions – such expected that the construction as cooling – need to be maintained work will be finalised by 2014. Nuclear Safety Account and that the actual decommissioning The ISF-2 is funded through the or dismantling of equipment cannot Established in 1993 at the Nuclear Safety Account, set up start. This facility does not conform EBRD to finance nuclear safety by the G7 at the EBRD in 1993 to modern standards and it appears measures in Eastern Europe. to provide financial support for unlikely that its current licence would Today the NSA finances two safety assessments and the short be extended when it expires in 2016. decommissioning facilities at term safety upgrades of old Soviet Chernobyl. The Interim Storage Facility 2 will designed nuclear power plants. The provide dry storage for the more fund comprises 16 countries plus than 20,000 spent fuel assemblies the European Commission and has from the operation of Chernobyl NPP so far received about €320 million for a period of at least 100 years. in contributions from its donors. 2004 2006 2007 ►► Start of biomedical protection and ►► December: Stabilisation of Western wall ►► 7 August: Ukraine and EBRD sign grant screening programmes for workers in structures in place agreement Chernobyl ►► 17 September: Chernobyl Nuclear ►► Year-end: Shelter stabilisation works begin Power Plant signs contract for NSC and completion of Interim Storage Facility 2. An international effort The international efforts to support CSF Contributions The Nuclear Safety Account, which Ukraine to overcome the legacy of finances the Interim Storage Facility 2, Donor Contribution the 1986 Chernobyl accident are (€ million) has received contributions from a demonstration of international European Community 250.0 the following 16 countries and the solidarity and considerable United States 182.8 European Commission to date: contributions have been made. Germany 60.5 United Kingdom 53.1 NSA contributions Preparations are now underway for France 52.5 a pledging event for both Chernobyl Donor Contribution Japan 45.7 projects in Kiev in April 2011 to (€ million) Ukraine 45.0* France 63.3 coincide with the 25th anniversary Italy 41.5 United Kingdom 40.4 of the accident. Together additional Canada 34.9 Germany 37.5 €740 million will need to be raised Russia 15.3 European Community 36.2 for the projects to be completed. Switzerland 9.3 Japan 27.0 According to projections based on Ireland 8.0 United States 26.3 detailed engineering the completion Austria 7.5 Italy 21.2 of the Shelter Implementation Sweden 7.2 Canada 15.3 Plan requires an additional Norway 7.0 Switzerland 10.9 €600 million and construction Netherlands 5.7 Sweden 9.0 of the Interim Storage Facility Kuwait 5.4 Russia 7.6 (ISF-2) an extra €140 million.
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