Year
2002
Abstract
After the shut down of the last operating reactor of the Chernobyl NPP in December 2000, a major project for the transfer of the irradiated fuel assemblies and absorbers to a dry storage was started at Chernobyl NPP. The irradiated fuel conditioning facility and dry storage are under construction and their commissioning is planned for 2003. The first phase regarding conditioning and transport operations will last around 10 years; the scheduled service lifetime of the storage facility is 100 years. The facility, situated about 4 km from the Chernobyl NPP is designed for approximately 23000 irradiated fuel assemblies and 3000 absorbers. It contains a Conditioning facility with a hot cell for cutting, conditioning and canning both fuel assemblies and absorbers. The adjacent Dry Storage facility consists of 232 reinforced concrete storage modules (NUHOMS ®) arranged in two parallel lines of 116 modules. The complexity of the facility and the large distance from the Chernobyl NPP required a complex safeguards approach to cover the transport from the Chernobyl NPP, the activities at the Conditioning facility, the transport to the dry storage modules and the storage of the irradiated fuel canisters in the modules. The paper presents the Safeguards Approach and the system design concept, developed by the IAEA, for this project. The design of such an integrated unattended surveillance and radiation monitoring system is based on the experience gained by the safeguards systems implemented at the Reactors and irradiated fuel storage at the Chernobyl site and at the Kazakhstan Fast Breeder Reactor BN-350 canning campaign. Support for development and installation of safeguards equipment is provided by the US Support Programme.