9 Jun (NucNet): Hot trials using radioactive material have begun at the solid radioactive waste management and storage facility at the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on 9 June 2017. The EBRD manages an EU-supported fund that has provided more than €830m ($926) for decommissioning projects and the development of Lithuania’s energy sector. The storage facility itself cost around €200m. The EBRD said the hot tests were an important step in the decommissioning process at Ignalina, whose two Soviet RBMK units were shut down in line with requirements for Lithuania’s membership of the EU. Ignalina-1 was shut down in December 2004 and Ignalina-2 in December 2009. Following the granting of an operating licence for the facility by state regulator Vatesi, the hot trial aims to show that the storage facility’s performance complies with the technical specification, the EBRD said. The facility, built by Nukem Technologies, will provide Ignalina with the means to retrieve, characterise, sort, transport, pack and store the short-lived and long-lived radioactive solid waste accumulated during its operation, as well as waste being generated during the decommissioning process. Industrial operations are scheduled to begin in June 2018, the EBRD said.
