11.09.2019  THE KOLSK NPP INFORMATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS ADMINISTRATION

The Kola NPP studies the international best practices in handling industrial waste

A team of experts from Norway and Germany working on the new methods of safe treatment of radioactive waste produced during an NPP operation has visited the Kola NPP.

The trip was organized in the wings of the Cooperation Agreement between the Rosenergoatom Joint-Stock Company and the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) in the Norwegian city of Halden.

According to this document, since 2017, the Kola NPP and the IFE have been working together on the joint project on waste management information and best practices exchange. This initiative is now extended as the experts from AiNT, a German engineering company, were added to the project. The new team members have experience in establishing innovative NPP radioactive waste container analysis systems that help to determine the radwaste composition and activity without having to open and re-package it.

‘For the past 13 years, the Kola NPP has been operating a unique framework on recycling the accumulated liquid radioactive waste. During that time, the amount of waste was reduced by a factor of over 500. We are still interested in new technologies that can help us extend this framework. It is extremely costly to order radioactive waste disposal at specialized vendors, which is why the minimization of waste amount has both environmental and economical benefits’, Vasiliy Omelchuk, the director of the Kola NPP.

‘We were excited to see the Kola NPP. The plant is undergoing activities related to the power blocks life expansion, which puts forward additional requirements, including those related to the radioactive waste handling. We came here to share our experience and to foster the processes optimization’, John Kettler, the managing director at AiNT, said.

The Kola NPP specialists have been working together with their counterparts from neighbouring countries as a part of the nuclear and radiation safety promotion programs since 1993, and these programs now account for over 30 successful projects.

Kola NPP is a branch of Rosenergoatom JSC (a part of Rosatom’s largest division – the Electric Power Division). The Plant is situated 200 km South of Murmansk at the shore of Lake Imandra. It generates about 60% of Murmansk Oblast electric power. It has 4 power units with VVER reactors with capacity of 440 MW each. Kola NPP is the supplier of electric power for Murmansk Oblast and Karelia.

The latest update on the radiation situation near Russian NPPs and other facilities of the nuclear power industry can be seen at www.russianatom.ru


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