Considerable progress in dealing with the legacies of past nuclear activities has been made over the last decade, and this remediation experience will help to resolve other environmental challenges and avoid similar cases in the future, panellists said at a side event held today on the margins of the IAEA’s 63rd General Conference.
“A healthy environment is one of the key requirements for the sustainability of nuclear technologies, including nuclear power,” said IAEA Deputy Director General Mikhail Chudakov, Head of the Department of Nuclear Energy. It is now common practice to include plans for remediation when new projects are designed, he added.
Experts from several countries presented case studies of environmental remediation programmes supported by the IAEA. Among them was the project to remediate the Chernobyl cooling pond, an area between the former Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the Pripyat River.
“As a result of the accident, the pond was heavily contaminated with radionuclides. The main concern was that there would be risks of additional radioactive contamination of the surrounding area, as a result of decommissioning,” said Viktor Kuchynskyi, Deputy Head of the Strategic Planning Department of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. “With IAEA support, a team of international and Ukrainian scientists designed and implemented a project to safely decommission the cooling pond. Also, the staff of the Chernobyl plant gained a valuable new experience, which we are ready to share.”
Dennis Amos Mwalongo of the Tanzania Atomic Energy Commission talked about the IAEA’s support through a Uranium Production Site Appraisal Mission, requested by the Government of Tanzania, to address the challenges the country was facing while developing its uranium mining and processing capability.
“Planning for uranium mining remediation and decommission should start well ahead before the actual mining starts,” he said. “The IAEA project helped us learn from experience of the others and so avoid any potential mistakes or higher than necessary costs.”
Participants also discussed the role of partnerships and how they can help promote high standards in implementing environmental remediation projects.
Karen Smith of Argonne National Laboratory in the United States presented outcomes and lessons learned from a decade of training on decommissioning and environmental remediation implemented in cooperation with the IAEA, including training 265 participants from 48 countries.
