A $360 million facility to store spent fuel will be built in the Siberian city of Zheleznogorsk (formerly Krasnoyarsk-26), officials said. Pavel Morozov, spokesman for the city's Chemical and Mining Combine, said work on the $120 million first stage of the facility will start next year.
The facility will be able to store 10,000t by 2006-7, and will eventually be able to store 40,000 tonnes. The facility will be dry storage, unlike the existing 6000 tonne wet storage site which currently holds 3000t of spent fuel.
Morozov says dry storage systems are cheaper to operate, are safer, and have proven to be successful in the USA and France.
Construction will start in about two years, and is expected to take 20 years. Minatom will provide the funding. The location was selected as the site for the new facility in order to provide work for the specialists there after the military reactors there are closed down. The new facility will employ 9500 people. The new facility will be located in the Kansk granitoid massif some 30km south-east of the existing facility.
