Verification with «excellent» mark!
All nuclear activities of Kazakhstan are carried out in accordance with the rules and standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). That is why the Agency regularly conducts inspections at our company which are aimed at verifying and confirming the amount of nuclear materials and nuclear activities officially declared by the country.
– In addition to inspections, uranium and thorium are verified annually at Ulba Metallurgical Plant. Verification is a technology for verifying information for reliability, correctness and accuracy. In 2022, this process took place from October 17th through 28th. As part of verification, 14 IAEA inspectors from 13 countries arrived on site. At the time of inspection the production was stopped.
The inspection of workshop «B», workshop «R», the area of control and assembly of finished products and Finished Products Storage of uranium production was carried out. LEU Bank, tailings storage area and Ulba-FA LLP were also checked,» says Alexey Boltanov, Uranium Operations Deputy Director.
– In order to pass verification, Ulba-FA LLP prepared a list of all available guaranteed uranium material indicating storage locations, condition and quantity. Verification by the IAEA specialists began with checking of each described position. Further, using certain statistical methods, the inspectors took samples and checked on their equipment the produced fuel assemblies, uranium and uranium-gadolinium fuel rods as well as fuel pellets and scraps,» explained Alexander Beletskyi, Ulba-FA LLP Nuclear Materials Accounting and Control Chief.
Verification of Ulba-FA plant was completed on October 19, and the inspection of Urnium Operations was completed on October 21. There were no comments from the representatives of the IAEA! Permission to start the production has been received. And this is the most important thing!
UMP JSC and Ulba-FA LLP management thanks everyone who participated in preparation and verification of 2022. This is a really serious task which the teams have successfully coped with!
By Alexey Proskuryakov, Anna Chumina
