By 2028, Rosatom plans to complete the decommissioning of the long-term storage facility for radioactive waste (RAW) on the territory of the Ural Electrochemical Combine (UEKhK – Uralskii ElektroKhimicheskii Kombinat) in Novouralsk, Sverdlovsk region.
Yuri Skosyrsky, head of the project office for decommissioning, rehabilitation of contaminated areas and management of radwaste at UEKhK, told reporters, during a press tour to the enterprise, that radioactive waste will be completely removed from the site in 2027. In 2028, the necessary surveys of the Novouralsk site will be carried out and the area will be covered with soil and sown with grass. The aim is to rehabilitate the territory to greenfield status, or at the very least to brownfield status, which would make it available for industrial use.
This long-term storage facility for radioactive waste was operated by the plant from 1951 to 1964. Work to eliminate it began in 2022. To date, about half of the radioactive waste has been removed and UEKhK is processing it independently. About 3% of all radioactive waste from the facility is classified as low-level, the remaining 97% is classified as very low-level. The solid radioactive waste that the includes used overalls, ventilation system filters, and sludge from remelting old centrifuges.
