Chernobyl ICSRM ships first seven waste packages for disposal
Six hot particles from the 1986 meltdown showed intact fuel crystal structures, with fissile material bound inside.
Key facts
- Decommissioning runs in four stages; final dismantling of reactor equipment due around 2065, per plant operators
- ICSRM began operations in May after years of construction, licensing and testing
- Processed waste goes to ENSDF, part of the Vector complex 20 kilometers west of Chernobyl
- Three waste facilities now active at the site: ICSRM, LRTP and the metal drum and container complex
- Findings from Leibniz University Hannover and HZDR published in the March 2026 Journal of Hazardous Materials
State Specialized Enterprise "Chornobyl NPP" said on September 17 that the Industrial Complex for Solid Radioactive Waste Management (ICSRM) had sent its first seven packages of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste for disposal. The ICSRM began operations in May after years of construction, licensing and testing, and had been proposed decades earlier. It is designed to treat waste left over from Chernobyl's pre-1986 operations and waste produced by the decommissioning of Unit 4.
Three radioactive waste facilities now operate at the site: the ICSRM, the Liquid Radioactive Waste Treatment Plant and the Complex for Manufacturing Metal Drums and Reinforced Concrete Containers. Solid waste was previously held at Chernobyl's Solid Radioactive Waste Storage Facility. Processed waste from the ICSRM goes to the Specially Equipped Near-Surface Disposal Facility for Solid Radioactive Waste, part of the Vector industrial complex built 20 kilometers west of Chernobyl.
Decommissioning at the site follows a four-stage process. Plant operators expect the fourth and final stage, dismantling of reactor equipment, to be completed around 2065.
Fuel stayed bound inside the particles
A team from Leibniz University Hannover and Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf reported in the March 2026 issue of the Journal of Hazardous Materials that the fuel components of six hot particles—radioactive debris from the Unit 4 explosion—were structurally stable, with fissile material bound inside them.
The particles included remnants with properties similar to uranium dioxide fuel, particles created when the fuel melted and fused with its zirconium shielding, and uranium oxides produced when the reactor's graphite moderator caught fire. X-ray diffraction showed the crystalline structures of the fuel material intact in each, suggesting fissile material had not escaped into the surrounding environment to any significant degree and was more stable than expected.
The team said further research was warranted, as only six particles were studied and every particle can behave differently. The paper said such research could promote new waste management and containment strategies at affected sites. A 1995 IAEA paper had hypothesized that structural matrices inside fuel particles could prevent radionuclides from migrating into the environment.
