Comprehensive safety assessment of RAW management sites operated by the State Corporation Ukrainian State Association Radon' and design of remediation activities

Delivery of a comprehensive safety assessment for the radioactive waste management sites currently operated by State Corporation “ Ukrainian State Association ‘Radon’ ” and development of designs to remediate some problematic facilities on these sites. Insofar as it refers to the problematic storages, the project aims primarily to design standard technical solutions (for each individual type of facility) in order to retrieve wastes from these storages, to remediate such problematic storages in the “near” zone of the sites and to obtain regulatory approval for the proposed actions. It is foreseen that the proposed solutions will, in particular, include the design of a temporary (mobile) building that will be placed over each storage facility so as to isolate it from the environment while the retrieval is taking place. The proposed solutions shall be chosen to be safe, economic and to make best use of the results obtained in the framework of INSC contract 2014/348369 (project U4.01/11D) in developing the technical solutions for the near-surface solid RAW storages.

The overall objective of the U4.01/14C INSC project was to support safety improvement of operating sites of the Specialized State Enterprise “Radon Association” (SSE Radon). The enterprise is responsible for collection, treatment and storage of radioactive waste (RAW) in Ukraine, not related to the nuclear fuel cycle. The SSE Radon waste storage sites are located at Kiyv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Lviv and Odessa. They had mainly been designed and commissioned in the time of the former Soviet Union and require remediation including retrieval of their radioactive inventory There were four types of “problematic” storage facilities identified on the sites:

• Well-type facilities for disused radiation sources;

• Solid RAW storage trenches with waste cemented in layers

• Solid RAW storage cells affected by water ingress

• Liquid waste storage tanks.

The specific objectives of the project included:

• Developing comprehensive safety assessments for the SSE Radon sites,
• Ranking the storage facilities at the SSE Radon sites by the hazard level, 
• Training SSE Radon experts in relevant areas of safety assessment.
• Developing standard technical solutions for remediation of problematic storage facilities (except well-type) at the SSE Radon sites.
• Developing a “roadmap” sequencing RAW retrieval from all storages (including well-type storages) at the SSE Radon sites.
• Supporting the SSE Radon during regulatory approval of the comprehensive safety assessments, the standard technical solutions and safety-related documentation for remediation of the problematic storage facilities.

For the U4.01/14C project, the contract No. 2018/399-052 was concluded. The contractor for this project was an international consortium of Brenk Systemplanung GmbH, with Plejades GmbH – Independent Experts, Ukratominstruments Corporation and DMT GmbH & Co. KG. The beneficiary of the project was the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management. The SSE Radon was an end user of the project.

The project formally started on 1 November 2018 with the implementation period of 36 months. It finished as scheduled on 31 October 2021. The project work consisted of the following tasks:

Task 1: Project preparation and inception phase

The project kick-off meetings took place in November 2018. Project working groups were established and the contractor prepared an Inception Report for the project.

Task 2: Analysis of input data for safety assessment and development of standard technical solutions

The contractor collected the available information using the official records kept at the SSE Radon. Missing information was complemented by reasonable assumptions or engineering judgement. The results are presented in a Task 2 report.

Task 3: Comprehensive Safety Assessment and storage ranking by hazard level

The contractor prepared comprehensive Safety Analysis Reports (SAR) for the RAW storage sites at Kyiv, Odessa, Dnipro, Lviv and Kharkiv. The SARs include site description, description of the waste stored, analysis of a normal operation safety and analysis of incidents and accidents. They also include analysis of long-term safety of storage facilities and site ranking. The SARs are part of a Task 3 report.

Task 4: Delivery of Safety Assessment Training

The contractor organized a four-day training workshop on safety assessment of SSE Radon sites. The training was focused on operational safety assessment, long-term safety assessment and facility ranking. The workshop also included preparation of safety assessment for Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odessa and Lviv sites. On-job training was also provided during implementation of the Task 2 and 3.

Task 5: Preparation of standard technical solutions and safety documentation for remediation of the problematic RAW storage facilities and preparation of a remediation roadmap

In this task, the contractor prepared a Standard Technical Solution (STS) for retrieval and conditioning of liquid radioactive waste (LRW) from the "problematic" LRW storage facilities at Kyiv, Odesa and Kharkiv sites. The contractor also prepared a Standard Technical Solution for retrieval of solid radioactive waste (SRW) storage facilities “without water” and their rehabilitation at the sites of Kyiv SRW #8, #9, #10, Kharkiv SRW#19, #20 and Lviv SRW#2.

The STS have included characteristics of the storage facility, general approach to the RAW retrieval, technological and service equipment, radiation control and protection measures, and assessment of the work scope and necessary human resources.

The contractor also drafted a remediation road map for the SSE Radon sites at Dnipro, Kharkiv and Lviv.

The contractor has presented results of the work in his Task 5 report.

Task 6: Final Technical Report and project dissemination

The final dissemination workshop took place on 13 October 2021. The contractor then prepared a Final Project Report.

The contractor completed all the project deliverables according to the project Terms of Reference. The comprehensive SAR for sites other than Kyiv CIS could only be submitted in a very late stage of the project because of prolonged beneficiary and regulatory reviews of facility SAR and comprehensive SAR for Kyiv site.

Because of delays caused by the prolonged regulatory review, the contractor could not provide support to the end user in resolving regulator’s comments to all comprehensive SARs.

Due to this project, however, the end user received complete toolboxes for performing and updating safety assessments and for management of radioactive waste sites (Standard Technical Solutions and Remediation Roadmap).

The contractor has further recommended to:

• Use the methodology practiced and experience acquired in the project for development or optimisation of technical solutions for other (problematic) waste streams,
• Improve operational safety of legacy RAW storage facilities; it should have a higher priority than liquidating the facilities,
• Use the safety assessment to justify internal decisions and to resolve regulatory issues; the SAR developed may serve as a tool for regular or specific interactions with the Regulatory Authority,
• Prefer, wherever possible, a direct transfer of the retrieved legacy waste to the „Vektor“ Industrial Complex; it should be favoured against creation of new storage capacities at the sites,
• Develop the planned extension of the „Vektor“ Industrial Complex with processing and disposal facilities; it will be necessary for waste streams recovered from legacy facilities as well as for anticipated transfer of inventory from operational storage facilities,
• Update the program of further development of „Vektor“ Industrial Complex by using findings of this project.