Environmental Problems Associated With Decommissioning the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Cooling Pond

Abstract

Decommissioning of nuclear power plants and other nuclear fuel cycle facilities has been an imperative issue lately. There exist significant experience and generally accepted recommendations on remediation of lands with residual radioactive contamination; however, there are hardly any such recommendations on remediation of cooling ponds that, in most cases, are fairly large water reservoirs. The literature only describes remediation of minor reservoirs containing radioactive silt (a complete closure followed by preservation) or small water reservoirs resulting in reestablishing natural water flows. Problems associated with remediation of river reservoirs resulting in flooding of vast agricultural areas also have been described. In addition, the severity of environmental and economic problems related to the remedial activities is shown to exceed any potential benefits of these activities. One of the large, highly contaminated water reservoirs that require either remediation or closure is Karachay Lake near the MAYAK Production Association in the Chelyabinsk Region of Russia where liquid radioactive waste had been deep well injected for a long period of time. Backfilling of Karachay Lake is currently in progress. It should be noted that secondary environmental problems associated with its closure are considered to be of less importance since sustaining Karachay Lake would have presented a much higher radiological risk. Another well-known highly contaminated water reservoir is the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) Cooling Pond, decommissioning of which is planned for the near future. This study summarizes the environmental problems associated with the ChNPP Cooling Pond decommissioning.

21 Issues for the 21st Century - Results of the UNEP Foresight Process on Emerging Environmental Issues

“…Some unexpected incidents have occurred during decommissioning as reported by Oskolkov (2010), Shimada and others (2010). These include: releases of radioactive elements; fires and floods affecting storage sites; and build-up of living organisms in the Chernobyl cooling pond that can potentially spread radioactivity.…”