Between 20th and 24th of April 2015 State Enterprise Radioactive Waste (SERAW) was a host of an international working meeting which is part of a project for technical cooperation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The subject of the seminar was the “Preliminary treatment and processing of low- and intermediate level RAW generated during the NPP’s operation and decommissioning”. The arrangements were entrusted to SERAW by decree No.71.02.02.2015 of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Bulgaria.
The seminar brought together twenty-four experts from ten countries who discussed for five days theoretical and practically-orientated aspects of the management of Radioactive Waste (RAW) generated from the operation of nuclear power units and RAW as a result of the decommissioning of shutdown units.
At the end of the seminar, Mr. Michael Ojovan – an IAEA representative, commented at the end of the event: “I know Bulgaria for a long time. I see that you have made a lot of efforts for the decommissioning. The visit to Units 1-4 was very impressive for us to see how you work and of course it is good that you have the support of the EBRD. I see that these investments are used very well. We visited also the site where you started to build the National Repository which was also very impressive and things look that you are well prepared for the decommissioning phase. The activities of the Bulgarian organisations involved in the process are quite in line with the other countries”.
One of the seminar participants – Mr. Jan Deckers – a Belgian expert well respected in this field, added: “First of all thanks very much to SERAW and Bulgaria for the organization of this workshop. It went very smoothly, it was very well organized and we were in a very nice environment. There were a lot of different speakers. One of the lessons we have learned is that counties should cooperate between each other for the radioactive waste treatment.”
