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Esther Harlander: The Chernobyl nuclear accident was the worst in the history of nuclear accidents
ever and nobody has ever attempted to restore or actually to make safe a nuclear reactor
that has been destroyed. Building the new safe confinement is a unique engineering project,
which is groundbreaking for both the contractors involved as well as Ukraine and its regulator.
The spent fuel storage facility or IFS-2 is equally unique as a project. It attempts to
provide dry storage for spent fuel from a Chernobyl type reactor against something that
has not been done before.
Blaine Ouimette: These two projects are complex engineering and construction projects involving
nuclear materials in a very unique site that is replicated nowhere else in the world. In
addition there are many players. Our role is to come in as an independent representative,
take part in this process, and reduce everything to a 20 or 25 page report on a monthly basis.
So anyonea donor, a client, anyone desiring to take part in the processcan sit down
and in a few minutes and gain a clear understanding of where the project is and where the major
challenges are.
Esther Harlander: These projects have a long and complicated history; they involve multiple
stakeholders and unique technical challenges. Black & Veatch had to hit the ground running;
they had to establish themselves as reliable, competent, and most important of all, cooperative
partners with the main players implementing the project. Black & Veatch have done a tremendous
job of overcoming these challenges; they're fully operational now, they have started to
deliver meaningful reports to the donors and the bank, and they have managed to establish
excellent working relationships with our project management units.
Blaine Ouimette: We're dealing with the aftermath of the worst nuclear power accident in history.
The global community is looking for sustainable sources of energy and nuclear power is one
piece of this, so the lessons learned here, the practices applied here in a very unique
first-of-a-kind situation have application worldwide to any country that is considering
the use of nuclear power. Black & Veatch talks a lot about building a world of difference;
this is an ethic that we live with every day. Successful completion of these projects in
part due to our efforts on this provides hope for a better way of life for millions of the
inhabitants of the country of Ukraine.