Infrastructure improvement for radioactive waste management, remediation of contaminated sites and decommissioning in Ukraine (U4.01/12BCD part 1)

There are large volumes of radioactive waste in Ukraine. Part of it was generated before the 1986 Chernobyl accident. This waste has been placed either in disposal facilities or in burials inside and outside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (ChEZ). Further, large quantities of radioactive waste would arise from remedial activities at the destroyed Unit 4 and from decommissioning of ChNPP units. Other radioactive waste arise from reprocessing the spent nuclear fuel of the VVER reactors operating in Ukraine.
The national NPP operator Energoatom is responsible for the initial treatment, processing and storage of the waste generated at NPPs
The Radon Corporation is responsible for collecting, treating and storing waste that arise from outside the nuclear fuel cycle.
The Centralized Radioactive Waste Management Enterprise (CRWME) is a part of Radon responsible for long-term storage and disposal of RAW in the ChEZ. CRWME operates two near-surface repositories of low-level and short-lived intermediate-level wastes generated within the EZ. Additional near-surface disposal and storage facilities have been under design and construction.
The existing infrastructure is generally outdated in various aspects and requires upgrades to meet current Ukrainian and international standards on radiological protection and safe radioactive waste management.

The main objective of the service contract U4.01/12BCD was to improve safety, efficiency and cost-effectiveness or radioactive management and decommissioning in Ukraine through infrastructure improvement, licensing support and staff training.
The service contract consisted of three separate projects:
• Project U4.01/12B - Assistance in the establishment of an emergency response system at Ukrainian State Association “Radon” for dealing with radiation incidents involving unauthorized radioactive materials that are not related to nuclear power plant (NPP) operation.
• Project U4.01/12C - Establishment of an integrated automatic system for environmental radiation monitoring at specialized enterprises of Ukrainian State Association “Radon”;
• Project U4.01/12D - Remediation of radioactive waste storage sites resulting from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident and situated outside the Exclusion Zone.
All three projects were also supposed to provide a direct support to a parallel equipment supply project by preparing procurement specifications.

The contract was implemented in the period of 24 moths from 6 December 2015 to 5 December 2017. The Contractor was the Brenk Systemplanung GmbH in consortium with Plejades GmbH, DMT GmbH & Co. KG and TÜV Nord Ensys GmbH.

The beneficiary was the State Administration for the Management of the Exclusion Zone (SAMEZ). The End Users of the project results were the State Corporation “Ukrainian State Association ‘Radon’” and the Ukraine Radiological Training Centre.

Results Achieved in the U4.01/12B project:
The contractor prepared a report containing detailed recommendations regarding the improvement of the national emergency response system for radiation incidents. It included description of international best practice, proposed draft regulatory documents and/or updates of existing documents. It also included draft strategy and timeline for implementation of the proposed improvements of the emergency response system for radiation incidents in Ukraine.
The contractor also prepared a tender documentation package for equipment supply to the Radon specialized plants, including Technical Specification, cost assessment and tender dossier.
The contractor then trained the staff of the Beneficiary, End User and other key organisations in responding to radiation incidents in Ukraine. Packages of appropriate training materials were prepared. The training consisted of a Phase 1 - training of End User trainers, and a Phase 2 - training of End User staff including training in use of equipment procured in the parallel equipment supply project.

Results Achieved in the U4.01/12C project:
The contractor first collected information on conditions of the specialized RADON sites and on international best practice in establishing radiation monitoring systems.
Then, the contractor prepared a design of an integrated and automatic radiation monitoring system for Radon specialized plants. The system design has included purpose, functionality, composition and configuration of the system. It also has included equipment requirements, equipment list and equipment locations at the Radon specialized plants.
Finally, the contractor prepared Technical Specification for manufacturing, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of the radiation monitoring system of Radon specialized plants. The specifications included a market analysis, cost assessment and tender dossier. The Technical Specification were used for the equipment supply tender.

Results Achieved in the U4.01/12D project:
The contractor performed safety ranking of Decontamination Waste Storage Facilities (DWSF) and Special Decontamination Stations (SDS), and provided recommendations on prioritizing their remediation. The ranking methodology was peer-reviewed/endorsed by IAEA expert working group and the Ukrainian Nuclear Regulator. The contractor also provided draft DWSF/SDS survey methodologies to contribute to better characterisation of the facilities.
The contractor prepared a complete Remediation Dossier for the Pisky-1 repository site as a pilot project. The dossier was internally reviewed by End User and submitted for a regulatory review. The contractor also prepared recommendations regarding adaptation of the pilot project remediation strategy for subsequent phased remediation of all DWSF/SDS.
The contractor prepared Technical Specifications and a tender dossier for supply of equipment needed for RAW retrieval from the DWSF/SDS, sorting, conditioning, transportation, and decontamination of contaminated equipment. Using the documents provided, the tender process was successfully implemented.

Unplanned complementary tasks to complete the project
Procurement Imperative: Because of a short deadline for a parallel EC equipment supply contract (December 2016), the technical specifications and the tender dossiers had to be completed by summer 2016. It was successfully achieved and appreciated by the EC Project manager. All other project tasks of lower priority could be finalized after summer 2016 only.
Support to suppliers’ kick-off meeting: After successful completion of the tendering process, the contractor provided support to suppliers, on request of the Contracting Authority, to ensure consistent start and implementation of the supply projects.

Information availability at the Project start
For the 12B and 12C projects, the information was made available through site visits and meetings with the End User organizations.
For the 12D project, the information available was quite poor. The full-scale screening safety assessment and ranking analyses defining remediation priorities could only be carried out for 17 out of 53 facilities. For the rest of DWSF sites, the data on site conditions an activity inventory were quite sparse. For those sites, only a qualitative analysis was carried out to identify higher-risk facilities that needed to be characterized first.

Lengthy Decision Processes for Specific Issues
The decision processes in Ukraine took longer than anticipated posing risks to project implementation delays. The contractor thus had to insist vigorously on obtaining the necessary decisions and information in time through a close follow-up.

Involvement of the regulatory body
Safety classification and attestation requirements on the radiation monitoring systems and components had to be first clarified with the regulatory body to get its timely approval. This issue was resolved due to constructive communication with the regulatory body facilitated by the End User.
In project 12D, the technical specifications of the RAW retrieval equipment needed to be completed prior to the remediation dossier due to the tight deadlines. But the specifications should have been based on a comprehensive remediation approach that would not have been established yet. This contradiction required certain pragmatism in the regulatory review. It could be resolved by joint efforts with the End User and the regulatory body having accepted such a pragmatism.