Ukraine to Stop Shipping Spent Nuclear Fuel to Russia in 2009

Excerpt from report by Interfax-Ukraine news agency

Kuznetsovsk, Rivne Region, 20 December: Starting from 2009, the national atomic energy generating company Enerhoatom, which operates all Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, is going to stop shipments of spent nuclear fuel to Russia completely, Enerhoatom president Yuriy Nedashkivskyy said to a news conference in Kuznetsovsk (Rivne Region) today.

“Enerhoatom and the winner of the international tender, the American company Holtec International, are completing the preparation of contractual documentation. The signing of a contract is scheduled for 26 December,” Nedashkivskyy said, commenting on the process of preparation for the signing of documents with the winner of the international tender on designing and building a centralized storage facility for spent nuclear fuel from three [Rivne, Khmelnytskyy and South-Ukrainian] nuclear power plants.

[Passage omitted: The preparation process will continue through 2006.]

“We will build the storage facility using the investors’ funds. After this, in the second half of 2009 or at the end of 2009, we will stop shipping spent nuclear fuel from Ukrainian nuclear power plants to Russia completely,” Nedashkivskyy said.

[Passage omitted: details of the international tender on the construction of the storage facility]