Russia’s Siberian Chemical Combine (SCC) in Seversk on 7 September signed an agreement for the second stage of reconstruction of Site 13 of SCC’s radiochemical plan. The reconstructed site will reprocess SCC’s liquid radioactive waste in preparation for its transfer to the National Operator for Radioactive Waste Management (NO RAO) for storage. The project comes under the Federal Target Programme “Nuclear and Radiation Safety”. The start-up facility (the building for the first process stage) at Site 13 was commissioned in 2015. Contractors will install equipment for the second process stage and reconstruct all the buildings and other structures.
Russia’s Siberian Chemical Combine (SCC) in Seversk on 7 September signed an agreement for the second stage of reconstruction of Site 13 of SCC’s radiochemical plan. The reconstructed site will reprocess SCC’s liquid radioactive waste in preparation for its transfer to the National Operator for Radioactive Waste Management (NO RAO) for storage. The project comes under the Federal Target Programme “Nuclear and Radiation Safety”. The start-up facility (the building for the first process stage) at Site 13 was commissioned in 2015. Contractors will install equipment for the second process stage and reconstruct all the buildings and other structures.
Mikhail Miklashevich, product engineer of the radiochemical plant, explained that the process would no longer involve discharging the waste to outdoor sludge reservoirs. “The waste will be accumulated and conditioned in the building and then handed over to the National Operator for disposal,” he said, stressing that the outdoor sludge storages were no longer in use at SCC and would be mothballed by 2030. SCC is part of State nuclear corporation Rosatom’s fuel company TVEL.
In a separate development, the Central Design and Technological Institute (CDTI, also part of TVEL) has won the tender for development of a design of a near-surface repository for class 3 and 4 solid radioactive waste at the SCC site.
The repository project customer is NO RAO. Its annual repository capacity will be at least 10,000 cubic metres of radwaste, with an overall capacity of 138,000 cubic metres (43,000 cubic metres of Class 3 waste and 95,000 cubic metres of Class 4 waste).
According to Rosatom’s procurement website on 7 September, eight companies participated in the repository design tender. CDTI offered the lowest price at RUB54.6m ($853,192) with the initial (maximum) contract cost being set at RUB96.5m. RAOPROEKT took the second place with an offer of RUB54.6m. The third place was taken by NEOLANT (RUB62.5m). The work should be completed before 30October 2018.