Ukraine should decide on the fate of waste nuclear fuel moved to Russian by 2018 and a related working group has been created, Energy and Coal Industry Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Demchyshyn said at a press conference in Kyiv on Monday.

"Under the first agreements signed in 1993, this term [the start of the return nuclear waste] begins in 2018, the agreement was signed for 25 years," he said.

Demchyshyn said that the creation of the working group is required to start analyzing the return of waste nuclear fuel and the appropriateness of doing so.

"We’ve started this work not to take something, but to agree on the conditions," he said.

Demchyshyn said that one of the options under consideration is the waste being stored in Russia, but in this case Ukraine would not demand the return of precious elements, which in the future could be used for the production of nuclear fuel.

"We've created a working group and will try to understand if it is appropriate. We'll try to understand what we could receive and how we can use it and how much the storage will cost until the moment when we are able to use it. We have time," he added.

As reported, Energoatom sends waste nuclear fuel for storage from its seven VV ER-1000 reactors to Krasnoyarsk-based mining and chemical combine (Russia) and from two VV ER-440 reactors to Mayak production amalgamation in Chelyabinsk, Russia. Waste nuclear fuel from the WWER-1000 reactors of Zaporizhia NPP is not taken to Russia, but is instead stored at a dry storage facility for waste nuclear fuel located near the plant which was commissioned in 2001.