US Holtec to Build Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility for Ukraine

Excerpt from report by Interfax-Ukraine news agency

Kiev, 26 December: The national nuclear energy generation company Enerhoatom has contracted Holtec International (USA) to design and build a dry storage facility for spent nuclear fuel.

Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Minister Ivan Plachkov, US Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst, Enerhoatom’s president Yuriy Nedashkivskyy, Holtec International president Kris Singh took part in the signing ceremony in Kiev today.

The new facility will be used to store the spent fuel from the Rivne, South Ukrainian and Khmelnytskyy nuclear power plants, which is currently sent to Russia. The first Ukrainian dry storage facility was commissioned at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant in September 2001.

As reported earlier, Holtec International won the international tender for the design and construction of a centralized storage facility for spent nuclear fuel from three operating nuclear plants. It bid to build the facility for 125m euros.

[Passage omitted: Enerhoatom operates four Ukrainian nuclear plants.]