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Ukraine Needs Nuclear Waste Storage Facility, Security Supremo Says

Posted on: Wednesday, 14 December 2005, 15:00 CST

Text of report by Ukrainian news agency UNIAN

Kiev, 14 December: Ukraine needs to have a storage facility for the nuclear waste produced by its own nuclear power plants, the press service of the National Security and Defence Council [NSDC] apparatus quoted NSDC Secretary Anatoliy Kinakh as saying.

He said that the development of nuclear electricity is a priority in the light of the preparation of Ukraine's energy development strategy to 2030 and strengthening the country's energy security.

The development of nuclear electricity received a lot more attention at the recent NSDC meeting. He added that today nuclear electricity occupies an important place in the country's energy balance and the strategy of the national energy security. He recalled that the 15 generating sets of Ukrainian nuclear power plants generate 52 per cent of all the country's electricity today, while the country has sufficient reserves of high-quality uranium ores "to cover the country's internal needs for 100 years".

He said that at the president's request the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the NSDC are preparing a programme for the upgrading and technological renewal of the nuclear industry, and making important steps to form a developed infrastructure for the nuclear and fuel cycle, from generation to storage.

Thus, serious attention should be paid to the construction of a centralized, up-to-date and environmentally friendly storage facility for nuclear waste, he said. "We are talking about the construction of a storage facility for nuclear waste from Ukrainian nuclear power plants because national legislation bans storing foreign nuclear waste on the territory of Ukraine," he stressed.

He added that Ukraine spends tens of millions of dollars every year to remove and store its own nuclear waste abroad. "This amount is nearly comparable to the cost of constructing a storage facility inside the country," he said.

[Passage omitted: background on the president's initiative for construction of a nuclear waste storage facility at Chernobyl]

Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union

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