Support to the Ukrainian Regulatory Authority

This project is the first of two projects dedicated to the licensing of the waste management and decommissioning of the Chernobyl NPP. The follow-up project was the UK/TS/20 (see the relevant PRS).
Other projects covered the Utility action in the same area, namely 95-1502, P234, UR/029, U4.01/99 and UR/028 (94-0645). All of them are summarised in the relevant PRSs.
This project was implemented in cooperation with some French Organisations (funded on a bilateral Ukrainian-French agreement) aimed at the development of a sound decommissioning process (planned the first year) and at its supervision (planned during the second year) by the Ukrainian team. Moreover, the Ukrainian experts could visit some French nuclear plants at different stages of decommissioning and have fruitful discussion with French operators in charge of these works as well as with the French Inspectorate.

The project objective was to provide assistance to Ukrainian Regulatory Administration NRA for all licensing activities related to the decommissioning and waste management at Chernobyl NPP.
More specifically, the project aimed at assisting the NRA in developing requirements and regulations, based on internationally accepted principles, to be applied to the decommissioning process and to the waste management at Chernobyl NPP (TASK1), defining safety objectives to be notified to the operators (TASK 2), in assessing the measures proposed by the operators for the decommissioning of the Chernobyl units 1, 2 and 3 (TASK 3) and the management of the waste resulting from decommissioning works (TASK 4), drawing up the inspection activities to ensure compliance with safety requirements (TASK 5).

All the project tasks were implemented according to a standard course of action, as in the following:

Development and presentation of technical guidelines related to each task before its development by the Technical Support Organisation (TSO)
Assessments of the Ukrainian regulatory documents drafts (TSO)
Assessment of the technical specifications of the planned facilities for decommissioning and waste management on the Chemobyl site during the contract duration (TSO+NRA/ State Scientific and Technical Centre SSTC)
Presentation of the assessments during technical meetings (TSO+NRA / SSTC) update of the document and reassessment before approval by the concerned ministry (TSO+NRA/SSTC).
The tasks were developed in parallel according to the translations of the already existing Ukrainian documents, the transmission of the technical specifications by the ChNPP operator, and the transmission of the Ukrainian regulatory drafts.

The most relevant activities carried out in the framework of each task are summarised in the following.

Task 1. The main effort in this task was spent on the assistance to the NRA in developing requirements and regulations to be applied to the decommissioning process and to the waste management on the basis of internationally accepted principles and procedures by means of development of technical guidelines, of written comments on the Ukrainian regulatory documents drafts and discussions during technical meetings. The achieved outputs were two Ukrainian Regulatory Documents and one western TSO document on internationally accepted principles, namely:

General provisions on safety assurance of decommissioning of nuclear power plants and research reactors
Requirements to Management of radioactive waste before their final disposal. General provision.
Regulatory issues in connection with the decommissioning operations for the RBMK reactors 1 , 2 and 3 at Chernobyl. The guidelines collected the international point of view for the decommissioning and the waste management. It also included a section with the comments of the Ukrainian regulators in comparison with the internationally accepted principles and procedures.
In relation to the assistance to NRA for the preparation of regulatory guidelines for Safety Analyses Reports by written proposals, comments and discussions, the achieved output was two Ukrainian Regulatory Documents, namely:

Decommissioning of Nuclear Power and Research Reactors. Content and Composition of Safety Analysis report. General requirements.
Requirements to Safety Analysis Reports for Radioactive Wastes Treatment Facilities
Task 2. In this task assistance was provided to the NRA in the field of definition of safety objectives to be notified to operators by the means of development of technical guidelines, of written comments on Ukrainian documents and discussions (TASK 2 -terminated). The achieved output was represented by four Ukrainian regulatory documents, namely:

Safety objectives for works during decommissioning of NPP
Safety objectives for prolonged storage Stage of decommissioning of NPP
Radioactive Waste management. Codes and order of radioactive waste exemption from regulatory control (entered into force 17 November 1997)
Radioactive waste management. Requirements to radioactive waste to be transferred to specialised utilities.
Task 3 and 4. In this tasks assistance was provided to the NRA in the assessment of measures proposed by the operators for the decommissioning of the Chernobyl 1, 2 and 3 units by written proposals and guidelines, comments and discussions. The achieved output was represented by two Ukrainian regulatory documents and two Ukrainian Safety Authority assessments on ChNpp technical specifications namely:
Dry storage facilities for spent nuclear Fuel. General requirements.
Safety Requirements for treatment of liquid radioactive Waste of Low and Intermediate Level activity
Technical specification, the design, licensing, fabrication, furnishing and commissioning of an interim storage facility for RBMK fuel at the Chernobyl NPP
Technical specification, the design, licensing, fabrication, furnishing and commissioning of liquid radwaste treatment plant
Task 5. In this task assistance was provided to the NRA for drawing up the inspection activities to ensure compliance with safety requirements by written proposals and guidelines after technical meeting with the Inspectorate. The achieved output was one Ukrainian regulatory document: Inspection procedures on radwaste management at Chernobyl NPP operation shutdown stage

4) Comments (Quality of the results, Lesson learnt, Recommendations for follow-up)

The project met the objectives stated in the TORs.
The synergy with a parallel bilateral project (France-Ukraine) was essential to complement the training of the personnel.
A three to three approach (Safety Authority/Technical Support/Operator) was established and provided an excellent involvement of all the stakeholders in such complex issues. The Parties recommended that such approach is maintained throughout the assistance process.