Ignalina NPP applies for radwaste repository licence

Lithuanian state enterprise Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant has applied to the country's regulator, Vatesi, for a licence to construct and operate a surface storage facility for low- and intermediate-level short-lived waste, known as the B25 project. The company is managing the decommissioning of the plant, which was named after the nearby city of Ignalina in the municipality of Visaginas.

Lithuania agreed to shut down Ignalina I and 2 – both Soviet-design RBMK reactors - as a condition of its accession to the European Union. Unit 1 was shut down in 2004 and unit 2 in 2009. The two light-water, graphite-moderated reactors came on line in 1983 and 1987, respectively.

Vatesi said on 10 June that the plant would submit a safety analysis for the planned repository in 2015-2017 and that the licence is expected to be issued in 2017. The first phase of the B25 project is to start in 2021.

The repository is intended for the final disposal of 100,000 cubic metres of radioactive waste both from the operation of the plant and generated during its decommissioning. The waste is to be stored by 2030, following the dismantling of the Ignalina plant and the reprocessing of its waste.

The repository will then be sealed and covered with a "multilayer protective coating to prevent external influences, the entry of precipitation and the spread of radionuclides into the environment", Vatesi said. It will be maintained for "at least" 300 years, it said.

Work started in July 2014 at the second unit of the plant to dismantle its emergency core cooling system (ECCS) and to remove contaminated components from its turbine hall. The two projects are to be completed in June 2015 and by 2029, respectively.

A total of 1000 tonnes of ECCS equipment are to be dismantled. After treatment and decontamination, 99% of this is to be sold, while the rest is to be disposed of. In the turbine hall, 20,500 tonnes of different equipment are to be dismantled.

Work on the two projects can start following the passing of a 17 June 2014 law on Ignalina nuclear power plant decommissioning.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News