Having conducted a 3-daysХ long examination, the representatives of the independent Transregional public environmental movement Oka have informed that the radiation background at the Novovoronezh NPP facilities does not exceed the natural one.

During the period of July 25-27, 2016, the movementХs experts verified the level of radiation at the Novovoronezh NPP facilities, at Novovoronezh social organizations and next to the city, covering 510 spots all in all.

The thing the environmentalists cared about in the first instance was handling radioactive waste and spent nuclear at the NPP in a secure way, including waste collection, recycling, conditioning, storage, and transportation, along with power blocks shut down.

The researchers have completed over 1500 health measurements at the NPPХs premises, including the solid radioactive waste storage facility. During the examinations, the environmentalists used their own professional close control equipment, which makes the results of those trustworthy for experts and the population. The average output was in the area of 0.09-0.15 mcSv/h, which is typical for the natural background in the Voronezh Region.

ТAgain, we were reassured that the Novovoronezh NPP is fully safe for the environmentУ, said Alan Khasiev, the head of the Oka movement. ТOur research has proven that there is no alternative for nuclear power industry in the Voronezh Region, and the Novovoronezh NPP is the one that can cater for the regional power securityУ.


ТPublic members and the Oka surveyors have completed the measurements at the NPP itself and at the facilities nearby. In particular, we have visited the nuclear waste storage. None of the measurements have demonstrated anything beyond the natural backgroundУ, Inna Kudriashova, the chairman of the Novovoronezh Public Chamber, stressed.

The expeditionХs program was highly eventful and included a review of the radioactive waste and spent nuclear handling system at the Novovoronezh NPP, including the solid radioactive waste storage and recycling facilities; monitoring of nuclear power blockХs shutdown; environmental and meteorological investigations in Novovoronezh and at the territories adjacent to the NPP; a meeting with the representatives of the Novovoronezh Public Chamber and the Novovoronezh NPP young nuclear specialists council to discuss joint programs and projects.

On July 27, a media conference for the regional mass media and a round table involving scientists and environmentalists took place in Voronezh summarizing the results of the expedition to the Novovoronezh NPP. In the end, a cooperation agreement was signed by the environmentalists from the Vladimir and Voronezh Regions.

The experts presented their results to the public and to their colleagues from Voronezh during the round table at the Voronezh Region non-profit organizationsХ resource center. The meeting was attended by Tatyana Shakhova, the Head of the Voronezh City Administration environmental protection department, Natalia Tolcheeva, a leading specialist of the Voronezh Region Natural resources and ecology DepartmentХs section for governmental environmental supervision, Marina Kondaurova, a representative of the Federal Supervisory Natural Resources Management Service in the Voronezh Region, as well as representatives of independent ecological organizations and the Novovoronezh NPP staff.

Ecological expeditions to NPPs designed to monitor the ways nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuels are being handled are an effective form of public control over the nuclear power industry.

It wasnХt the first time when representatives of the independent Transregional public environmental movement Oka visited the Novovoronezh NPP for a research expedition. Since 2010, they have organized radiation background monitoring at the NPPХs facilities and within the area of 30 kilometers around them on an annual basis.

* The Transregional public environmental movement Oka was established in 1989 by Lomonosov Moscow State University graduates, the participants of the Youth residential complex movement. According to its charter, the organizations pursues protection of the Oka river and its basin, along with ecological and power security research in multiple Russian regions. Since 2010, the Oka environmental movement has been involved in a long-term ТPublic control over the nuclear power industryУ program enabled by the Rosatom CorporationХs transparency policy.

The Novovoronezh nuclear power plant is a branch of the JSC "Concern Rosenergoatom". The station is located on the bank of the Don River in 42 km to the south of Voronezh. It is the Russia's first nuclear power plant with VVER reactors (water-to-water power reactors of case type with regular water under pressure). Each of five reactors of the station can be a main one Р a prototype of serial power reactors: the power unit No. 1 with the VVER-210 reactor, the power unit No. 2 with the VVER-365 reactor, the No. 3, 4 power units with the VVER-440 reactors, the power unit No. 5 with the VVER-1000 reactor. The first power unit was launched in 1964, the second Р in 1969, third Р in 1971, fourth Р 1972, fifth Р 1979. There are three power units (power units No.1, 2 were stopped in 1984 and 1990 respectively) in work at the moment.

The new innovative power units with capacity 1200 MW have been constructed at the construction site of the Novovoronezh NPP since 2007.

The up-to-date information on the nuclear environment close to the Russian NOOs and other nuclear objects is available at www.russianatom.ru

Novovoronezh NPP Information and Public Relations Administration.