The First Stage of Spent Radioactive Fuel Storage Opened in the Chornobyl Zone

The Centralised Spent Fuel Storage Facility (CSFSF) complex’s first launch took place in the Chornobyl zone. The event was attended by the Ukrainian company Energoatom management, representatives from the American company Holtec International, and other companies participating in this project’s implementation.

As NNEGC Energoatom’s press-service reports spent fuel containers will be stored at the open-air facility. Nuclear waste will be transported here from Rivne, Khmelnytsky, and South-Ukrainian NPPs.

“Currently, the construction of all building structures and infrastructure for the reception and storage of spent nuclear fuel and the site for keeping the spent fuel containers has been completed at the Centralised Spent Fuel Storage Facility. Commissioning and testing of equipment supplied by Holtec has begun. The first launch complex’s operation will start in May 2021 after a 43-kilometre railway track to the Repository construction is completed, which will connect it with the Ukrainian railway network. Another 14 CSWF complexes will be over by 2040, simultaneously with the filling of the Repository site with spent fuel containers,” the statement reads.

It is noted that spent nuclear fuel will be stored in the repository for the next 100 years. The cost of the project is about UAH 2 billion.

Bohdan Marusyak