CHELYABINSK – Another batch of spent nuclear fuel has been brought from Ukraine’s Rivne Nuclear Power Plant to the Mayak Radiochemical Plant of Russia’s Rosatom state corporation for recycling, the Mayak press service said in a statement.
“Radioactive waste received as a result of recycling VVER-440 fuel assemblies will be subjected to vaporization and vitrification and kept in a special storage facility until they are sent back to Ukraine,” the statement quoted engineer of Mayak Workshop 5 Konstantin Miroshnichenko as saying.
Spent nuclear fuel is annually received by Russia from Ukraine consistent with the intergovernmental agreement on scientific, technical and economic cooperation in the field of atomic energy, which was signed on Jan. 15, 1993. The agreement envisages temporary storing and recycling of spent nuclear fuel in Russia.
The Rivne Nuclear Power Plant is located in the northwest of Ukraine’s Rivne region. It operates four reactor units with a total rated capacity of 2,835 MW (two VVER-440 and two VVER-1000 reactor units) built by Soviet blueprints. The first two reactor units, the VVER-440 ones, were commissioned in 1980-1981.
Mayak is a state-run enterprise producing nuclear weapon components and isotopes and storing and recycling spent nuclear fuel.
