(Photo credit: Chornobyl NPP)

The State Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine DIYaRU – Derzhavna Inspektsiya Yadernovo Ukraini) has amended the licence issued to Chornobyl NPP (ChNPP) for the right to conduct activities for processing and storage of radioactive waste through the commissioning of an Industrial Complex for Solid Radioactive Waste Management (PKPTRV – Promislovovo Kompleksu po Povodzhennio I Tverdimi Radioaktivnimi Vidkhodami). This entitles ChNPP to start the industrial operation of the PKPTRV and to recycle solid radioactive waste accumulated during the decommissioning of the ChNPP as well as operational radioactive waste from the Shelter facility (the emergency structure hastily built in 1986 to protect unit 4 destroyed in the accident).

The PKPTRV includes a Solid Waste Retrieval Facility and Solid Waste Processing Plant involving four facilities for the management of solid radioactive waste combined in a single technological cycle. These facilities include:

  • Lot 0 – temporary storage for low- and intermediate-level long-lived waste as well as high-level waste. This is part of the Liquid and Solid Waste Storage Facility and was commissioned in 2010.
  • Lot 1 – this will retrieve solid wastes from an existing solid waste storage facility. It will handle 3 cubic metres of waste a day over an operational life of 30 years.
  • Lot 2 – this will sort solid wastes and process low- and intermediate-level wastes at the rate of 20 cubic metres a day. Some solid and liquid wastes will be incinerated, and some will be cemented. It can package 1.5 cubic metres of long-lived low- and intermediate-level waste a day, and can store 3,500 cubic metres of low- intermediate- and high-level waste.
  • Lot 3 – this is a near-surface storage facility for low- and intermediate-level short-lived waste with a capacity of 55,000 cubic metres. It will accept waste for 30 years and store it for 300 years.

Lots 1&2 are being built at the ChNPP site and Lot 3 at the site of the Vector complex in the exclusion zone. The PKPTRV was majority funded by the European Union.