Spent nuclear fuel storage to be built near Chornobyl by year-end: Energoatom

Acting President of Ukraine's nuclear power giant Energoatom Petro Kotin says the construction of the Centralized Spent Fuel Storage Facility (CSFSF) in the exclusion zone around the Chornobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) in Kyiv region will have been completed by the end of 2020.

"According to our schedule, which has been adjusted, we expect to complete all works there this year. But there is an issue we have no power over: the completion of a 40 km-railway line between of the settlements of Vilcha and Yaniv. The construction must be completed so that we can bring fuel here from our nuclear power plants," he told journalists on October 9.

According to Kotin, it is necessary to build railway tracks to the storage facility on the forest plot, which is managed by the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management (SAUEZM).

Read alsoChornobyl's New Safe Confinement handed over to Ukraine (Photo, video)Ukrainian state-owned railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways) manages the Vilcha-Yaniv line. However, the railroad has been idle for several decades, now being in a dilapidated condition. The state specialized enterprise Pivnichna Pushcha, subordinated to the SAUEZM, is supposed to fell trees, bushes and shrubs on the track itself and the adjacent territory, but due to insufficient funding, works have not been completed. Accordingly, Ukrzaliznytsia cannot start laying the railway line.

"According to the schedule, the first batch of fuel should be delivered to the storage facility from Rivne NPP in April 2021. By this deadline, we still have time to launch the site," he said.

Kotin says the commissioning of the CSFSF will be a breakthrough for Ukraine, as it will increase the country's energy security and save up to US$200 million a year, which Ukraine spends annually on the export of spent nuclear fuel to Russia.

"We are now at the final stage of this huge construction for Ukraine. This will save us about US$150-200 million a year, which we now have to pay to the Russian Federation for transporting our spent nuclear fuel there from the three of our nuclear power plants," he added.

CSFSF project: Background

Early in June 2017, Ukraine's government approved a project for the construction of a Centralized Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel. Using this advanced storage technology, Holtec International will safely store nuclear fuel from Ukraine's Rivne, Khmelnytsky and Yuzhnoukrainsk nuclear power plants for 100 years. Since 2001, Zaporizhia NPP has been using a local storage of spent nuclear fuel. As Ukraine has no storage facility now, it has to spend about US$200 million every year to pay for the removal and processing of spent nuclear fuel in Russia.

In December 2017, Energoatom, together with the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, signed a loan agreement with OPIC and the Central Storage Safety Project Trust for US$250 million, which will be used for the construction of the Central Storage Facility.