Unique company Ukrenergomontazh has turned 30
Tamers of the atom
Unique company Ukrenergomontazh has turned 30
The foundations of Ukrenergomontazh’s unique features were set 30 years ago and have been refined throughout construction of the 1st-6th reactor units of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), liquidation of Chernobyl accident and execution of the SIP project.
The company’s symbol is an atom becoming airborne shown as the Shelter (a protective cover placed over the damaged 4th reactor unit of Chernobyl NPP) and human hands that keep it from flying. This is the symbol of what Ukrenergomontazh has been doing for over 16 years and what it will do further on.
Specialised construction company Yuzhenergomontazh, Chernobyl, was established in spring 1972 for the purpose of building Chernobyl NPP. The key staff included highly skilled electric welders and riggers who were assigned a task of assembling metal structures and precast concrete used in construction of the nuclear power plant.
Back in 1972, the vanguard of the company employed the true engineering and technical elite of Ukraine and the best workers in energy sector who were gathered together to build the first nuclear power plant in Ukraine. I would like to specially mention the contribution of the first head of the company Vladimir Denisov and such technicians and engineers as Anatoly Andriyenko, Ivan Tsyapa, Anatoly Sokolov, Anatoly Yakubovich, Vladimir Bulich, Victor Nabok; foreman and workers Ivan Ragulin, Ivan Babitskiy, Ivan Umanskiy, Yevgeny Udodov, Nikolai Krivulko, Peter Kriulko, Yevgeny Kozlov, Ivan Tychina, Nikolai Udovenko, Sergei Chuhriy and Constantine Yezhov. I was among those people in the position of a rigger back then.
The company was progressing quickly, and a skilled and capable team of workers was emerging. As long as construction of nuclear power facilities made use of the most advanced inventions and technologies in the USSR, one can say that there was hardly any similar company more qualified than ours.
In 1986 workers of the company learned how to liquidate accidents
The company was renamed to Spetsatomenergomontazh in 1979, however, its goals remained unaltered. By then, the company had already owned powerful facilities, the most modern construction machines and equipment and wonderful administrative premises. Alas, all those were located just 300 meters away from the 4th reactor of Chernobyl NPP and turned into highly dangerous radioactive waste on 26 April 1986, at the time of the accident.
It was the low times, however, former managers of the company, i.e. Alexander Kostyrko, Nikolai Kuzmenko, Valentin Krasnogorov, Sergei Pilipenko, together with engineers, technicians and foreman quickly adapted to the new situation and commenced liquidation of the accident’s aftermath in early May 1986. An Honorary Diploma of the Supreme Council of Ukrainian SSR acknowledges their significant input into liquidation activities, while a number of workers were honoured with orders and medals. A new profession of the liquidator appeared. It is the two absolutely different things – construction and liquidation of nuclear accidents. Besides to high professionalism, the latter requires boldness, selflessness and special skills. Additionally, it takes so much effort to overcome one’s fears of radiation! Professionalism, self-discipline, assistance and decency are the qualities of a true liquidator of Chernobyl accident.
Subsequently, all those qualities were taught to the new generation of technicians, engineers and workers at construction sites.
Ukrenergomontazh takes active part in implementation of the SIP project
In 1988 the company was reorganised and renamed into Ukrenergomontazh. In 1986-1995 Ukrenergomontazh executed much work relating to liquidation of the consequences of Chernobyl accident, building of the town of Slavutich and construction of more than 50 facilities throughout Ukraine. Over those years, the company employed young engineering and technical specialists, as well as workers, and taught them the high professionalism peculiar to the masters. Owing to that, we have commenced execution of special activities directly at the site of the Chernobyl Shelter since 1995. The cornerstone of this success was the construction of the Transportation Scheme inside the Shelter to move around the fuel element matter.
While performing this work, for the first time ever, we opened part of the buttress wall of the Shelter and subsequently disassembled certain wall elements of the 4th reactor unit.
The work was done on time and with proper quality. Furthermore, this made our staff more prepared to the special activities at the Shelter in even more difficult conditions. Since 1998 the company has been taking active part in stage-by-stage transformation of the Shelter into a safe object within the framework of the Shelter Implementation Plan (SIP) in compliance with the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Government of Ukraine, the Great 7 countries and the European Commission.
At the first stage of SIP implementation, Ukrenergomontazh repaired the two most critical zones of the Shelter, namely, in 1998 the company stabilised the vent duct of the 3rd and 4th reactor units by fixing the damage done to tube frames and operating floors. To ensure safety of our workers, at the preparations stage the company created a 1 to 200 scaled model of the duct and reactor areas and trained the workers to perform the necessary operations there, including radiation protection activities, safety arrangements and fire prevention. All those skills were made use of subsequently.
Prior to commencement of immediate work, the engineering team of Ukrenergomontazh proposed and for the first time in liquidation of Chernobyl accident constructed a full-scale mock up of the part of the vent duct that would be subject to stabilisation (done at the site of the company’s premises in Chernobyl). For many times, the workers used the mock up to train how to fix biological protection and attached implements, they learned how to perform welding at the tube frame reinforcement areas and operating floors. This way, workers of the company were subject to significantly lower exposure to radiation at immediate execution of work. The work itself was performed swiftly without any breach of schedules and at superb quality. Representatives of the USA and Canada (the countries that sponsored stabilisation of the vent duct) gave their high appraisal to the company’s efforts.
The company successfully applied its experience of creating mock ups in 1999, when stabilising backbone junctions of B1 and B2 beams that threatened condition of the Shelter’s roof.
For the first time ever, all those works were done inside the upper part of the Shelter, in extreme conditions of significant temperature drops and high radiation fields. However, owing to the input of workers and engineers who had already participated in the Transpiration Scheme project and vent duct stabilisation, owing to hard work at preliminary stage (including the use of mock up that modelled the Shelter areas and full-scale backbones of B1 and B2 beams in order to simulate technologies and methods of the work) and the use up-to-date methods of biological protection against high radiation, use of TV technologies, mobile communications and effective management, the company has been able to improve reliability of the beams themselves and their supports on time, at supreme quality and at little exposure.
Having shown itself as a company with skilled employees and high potential, since 2000 Ukrenergomontazh has been sealing the joint edge of cascade wall and B block and of VSRO roof and the Shelter and building storage premises for waste nuclear fuel and a machine for processing of liquid radioactive waste.
In 2001 Ukrenergomontazh continued implementation of the SIP project (Ukraine’s commitments), including the fastening of KB-676.2 crane and elimination of unauthorised passes in the Shelter’s roof. At execution of that job, the company applied even more perfect training methods which is certified by the 2001 Report of Nuclear Safety compiled by Ukratom independent organisation.
I bless the ones who have been together with me all these 30 years, in glory or in grief, to all those who still rejoice our success even after retiring from the company. I wanted to distinguish the best ones but I cannot because all of them are the best! I am happy to have a chance to manage this team! I would like to congratulate with the company’s 30-year anniversary all those who worked in Chernobyl and Pripyat offices of Yuzhenergomontazh, in Chernobyl-based Spetsatomenergomontazh, and all those who worked and still work with Ukrenergomontazh. May you enjoy much health, happiness and prosperity.