SAUEZM Still in Search for Funds for ISF-2 Operation
The State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management is looking for opportunities to cover the operating costs of spent fuel storage facility ISF-2 at ChNPP in 2021.
This was announced by SAUEZM Deputy Head Maxym Shevchuk during loading of the first canister with spent nuclear fuel into ISF-2 during storage facility hot tests on 19 November.
“Our task is safe operation of the storage facility. Next year we together with deputies, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources will work to find the appropriate costs. Capital costs were provided by our partners, and we should provide operating costs. These are quite significant costs, but we should do this. This is our safety”, Shevchuk said.
The mentioned partners of the ISF-2 project, according to Shevchuk, were countries of the European Union and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
“The dry spent fuel storage facility is constructed according to the latest nuclear safety technologies and is designed to store spent nuclear fuel from ChNPP for a hundred years. The process will be as follows: from the wet spent fuel storage facility we will transport nuclear fuel to this facility. This process is quite long and will take about 10 years, since more than 21 thousand of fuel assemblies are stored at the NPP. We can transport 2.5 thousand of assemblies a year”, Shevchuk said.
Now hot tests of the new storage facility are underway: tests using real fuel assemblies.
As reported, 18-19 during November, ISF-2 in the exclusion zone accepted 120 spent fuel assemblies from ChNPP.
