2024-03-11 19:55:14
The delegation of the Republic of Armenia, headed by Movses Vardanyan, director of the Armenian NPP, visited one of the power units of the Leningrad NPP and got acquainted with the radioactive waste processing complex as part of the visit to Russia. The visit took place within the framework of the comprehensive program of Russian-Armenian cooperation in the field of energy and non-energy projects launched in 2022.
The organizers of the technical tour are Rosenergoatom Concern JSC and Rosatom’s TVEL fuel company, which is an integrator of the Russian nuclear industry for the decommissioning of nuclear facilities and the management of related radioactive waste, and also acts as a distributor of spent nuclear fuel, radioactive waste and the base organization of the CIS countries dealing with decommissioning of nuclear facilities.
The event was attended by representatives of the Armenian NPP, the expert team of the Integrator, led by Eduard Nikitin, the director of decommissioning programs of “TVEL” JSC, as well as the general director of the engineering company of the radioactive waste management industry of “SverdNIIKhimmash” JSC Alexander Cherepanov.
During the technical tour, the representatives of the Armenian NPP got acquainted with Rosatom’s Russian experience, competences and technical solutions in nuclear competences and technical solutions, including decommissioning of nuclear facilities and in the field of radioactive waste management.
“LAEP is a reference platform for VVER-1200 units that Rosatom builds abroad, and is also a pioneer in decommissioning power units and radioactive waste management. In 2018 and 2020, units No. 1 and 2 of RBMK-1000 were closed, operated without generation, a concept and decommissioning project is being prepared, where the main issues are the safe transfer of radioactive waste, downgrading of activity class and volume reduction. The modern radioactive waste processing complex of the Leningrad NPP helps us in this, which reduces the amount of accumulated waste tens of times. We are ready to share this experience with partners from other countries,” said Vladimir Pereguda, director of the Leningrad NPP.
Expert consultations took place during the visit, during which special attention was paid to the problems of radioactive waste management. The experts paid a lot of attention to the priority issues of the Republic of Armenia related to the formation of the national radioactive waste management system, including the processing of solid and liquid RTK and bringing them to acceptance standards, as well as their final isolation.
“Modern radioactive waste management technologies were demonstrated at the Leningrad NPP, which will be of interest to Armenian partners not only from the point of view of the modernization of the radioactive waste complex of the existing Armenian NPP, but also from the point of view of the construction of new production capacities,” said Eduard, director of decommissioning programs of TVEL JSC. Nikitin.
“We plan to build a similar complex for radioactive waste processing. Therefore, it was very important and interesting to study the experience and technology of the Leningrad NPP. In addition, we got acquainted with the training center of LAEP, where operational personnel, repairmen and other specialists are trained. With the planned construction of new nuclear power units, we hope to train some of our specialists in the training department of the Leningrad NPP,” said Movses Vardanyan, First Deputy General Director of “HAEK” CJSC, Director of the Armenian NPP.
As a result of the technical tour, the parties held expert consultations, where further cooperation on radioactive waste decommissioning and management issues was discussed, including within the framework of the concept of a comprehensive program for the elimination of threats from nuclear heritage facilities in CIS countries, which are at various stages of decommissioning, including reclamation of areas affected by uranium mining and radioactive waste management.