CHELYABINSK. Oct 21 (Interfax) - The Mayak Radiochemical Plant of Russia's Rosatom state corporation in Ozersk in the Chelyabinsk Region is planning to liquidate a further five nuclear legacy facilities - buried pumping and transfer stations for liquid radioactive waste, the plant's press service said in a statement.
"A network schedule and draft program for carrying out works has been drawn up. Sites and territories are being prepared. Complex and comprehensive tridimensional engineering and radiation surveys of all five facilities were carried out as early as 2018-2019," the statement said.
Under a contract with Rosatom, two nuclear legacy sites were liquidated at Mayak ahead of schedule in August, the press service said. These were underground storage tanks for liquid radioactive waste.
Furthermore, in the nearest future the plant plans to complete expert assessment of design and estimate documentation for decommissioning of two more large sites, with their dismantling due to start in 2021, the press service said.
It was reported earlier that Mayak plans to decommission hazardous nuclear and radiation facilities by 2030, with funding from the federal budget totaling 30 billion rubles. Work on the decommissioning of these sites is being carried out within the framework of the federal target program titled "Nuclear and radiation safety provision for 2016-2020 and for the period through 2030". Such works have been underway at Mayak since 2017, and there are plans to decommission 24 nuclear legacy sites dating from the late 1940s to the early 1980s. In total, there are about 200 nuclear legacy sites at Mayak, including 54 radioactive waste storage facilities, special industrial ponds, and areas of contaminated territory at the radiochemical plant.
The Mayak plant is engaged in production of nuclear weapons components, isotopes, and storage and processing of spent nuclear fuel.