Ukraine needs to design a balanced strategy to treat spent nuclear fuel, the State Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation has reported.
“The Council Directive 2011/70/Euratom (being implemented by Ukraine) directly establishes a liability of the EU countries to have a strategy for treating spent fuel and radioactive waste secured financially. The approach is acknowledged by the civilized world and helps to avoid imposing undue burdens on future generations,” the regulator said.
The inspectorate said that now National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom is working to build the centralized spent nuclear fuel storage facility before 2018. This would minimize the country’s expenses in spent fuel management (now Ukraine pays $150-200 million a year for removal of spent nuclear fuel for temporary storage and disposing).
In the long-term outlook, the construction of a deep storage facility would require.
“The facility would be built no earlier than in 50 years. However, we need to have clear information about the required capacity of this storage facility for its creation… These issues should be reflected in the strategy to treat spent nuclear fuel,” the regulator said.
