May 27, 2016, Madrid - Representatives of ROSATOM participated in the International IAEA Conference on Advancing the Global Implementation of Decommissioning and Environmental Remediation Programmes. The Russian delegation was headed by ROSATOM’s Director for the State Policy in the Field of Radioactive Waste, Spent Nuclear Fuel and Nuclear Decommissioning Oleg Kryukov.
Speaking in front of the delegates, Oleg Kryukov presented the results of executing the Russian federal target program (FTP) for nuclear heritage elimination and environmental safety of nuclear power plants: ‘In the early 2000s, it became clear that the problems related to the Soviet-era nuclear legacy, especially the large amount of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and radioactive waste (RW) accumulated over decades, should be resolved and that we could no longer stick to the principle of deferred decisions. It was for this purpose that the federal targeted program on Nuclear and Radiation Safety assurance for the period 2008 – 2015 was developed and approved. We can now say that the program has been completed. A lot has been accomplished within the framework of the FTP: 28,500 spent fuel assemblies from different reactor types, both commercial and research, have been placed in long-term storage or reprocessed. Around 800 spent fuel assemblies from nuclear submarines have been removed. The Far East of Russia is now completely free from nuclear submarine spent fuel.
Oleg Kryukov also mentioned the completion of the conservation work on Lake Karachay in the Chelyabinsk region as one of the most significant projects as part of the FTP.  Before its closure, the Lake area was about 36 hectares, and the total activity of accumulated RW exceeded 120 m Ci. Overall, since 2008, within the federal targeted program, the company has reclaimed more than 270 hectares of land in different regions of Russia.
In addition, Oleg Kryukov said that ROSATOM was the first company in the world that to have completed the decommissioning of an industrial reactor. He also mentioned the work and achievements of VNIINM, which carried out the decommissioning of the research building B, and the National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute that executed the project of decommissioning the research reactors MR and RTF.
In conclusion of his report, Oleg Kryukov said that since 2016, there has been a new federal targeted program in Russia aimed at continuing of the activities initiated within the first FTP, with more ambitious goals and objectives.
Other representatives of ROSATOM also delivered reports within the framework of the conference. Within the panel discussion held after the presentation of the American, French and Russian national reports, the Director for Nuclear clean-up and dismantling division Laurence Piketty and the Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management Monica Regalbuto also made speeches.
Over its first two days alone, the conference brought together around 650 delegates from around the world. Numerous visitors to ROSATOM's stand received the most complete information on the company’s full range of back-end services.
Source: Press Service of Rosatom International Network