11:06 24.04.2014

Cabinet allocates 45 ha in Chornobyl exclusion zone for central waste nuclear fuel storage facility

3 min read
Cabinet allocates 45 ha in Chornobyl exclusion zone for central waste nuclear fuel storage facility

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has allocated a land plot of 45 hectares in the exclusion zone on the territory of Chornobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) to build the central waste nuclear fuel storage facility, Head of National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom Yuriy Nedashkovsky has said.

"Today a decision to allocate 45 hectares was made to execute the law on the placement of the central waste nuclear fuel storage facility," he told reporters after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, April 23.

Nedashkovsky said that after the construction of the launch complex, which will be finished in late 2017, and the commissioning of the storage facility, waste nuclear fuel from three nuclear power plants: Khmelnytsky, Rivne and Yuzhnoukrainsk NPPs. U.S. Holtec International will build the facility, Nedashkovsky said.

As reported, the Ukrainian parliament passed a law on the construction of the central waste nuclear fuel storage facility in February 2012.

In order to reduce waste related to the transporting of spent nuclear fuel, in 2003 Energoatom announced an international tender to select a company to build a centralized dry waste storage area for spent nuclear fuel from Yuzhnoukrainsk, Rivne and Khmelnytsky nuclear plants (Zaporizhia NPP already has its own spent nuclear fuel storage facility on site). The tender was won by Holtec International (the United States) in late 2005. Energoatom in December 2005 signed a contract worth EUR 127.75 million to design, license, build and commission a first stage of the storage facility.

The total area of the waste nuclear fuel storage facility is 11.7 hectares. The term of construction will take into account the term required to fill it with waste fuel.

According to cabinet resolution No. 131 of February 12, 2009, the first stage (the launch complex) of the facility is to be built in 36 months for UAH 1.23 billion, while the cost of the whole construction is estimated at UAH 3.68 billion.

A feasibility study prepared by Energoproekt (Kyiv) foresees the projected capacity of the facility at 16,530 assemblies, including 12,010 from WWER-1000 reactors and 4,520 from WWER-440 reactors. The capacity of the first stage is 3,620 assemblies, including 2,510 from WWER-1000 reactors.

The facility will be located on the area between the villages of Stara Krasnytsia, Buriakivka, Chystohalivka, and Stechanka in the alienation area southwest of the decommissioned Chornobyl NPP.

Energoatom brings waste nuclear fuel for storage from seven WWER-1000 reactors to Krasnoyarsk-based mining and chemical combine (Russia) and from two WWER-440 reactors to Mayak production amalgamation in Chelyabinsk, Russia.

Waste nuclear fuel from WWER-1000 reactors of Zaporizhia NPP is not taken to Russia, but stored at a dry storage facility for waste nuclear fuel located near the plant that was commissioned in 2001.

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