Start-up of Ukraine's Centralized Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage (CSNFS) has been deferred until the end of 2018 because of financial difficulties and allotment of land, Yuri Nedashkovsky, president of nuclear utility Energoatom, told a meeting of the parliamentary committee on fuel and energy, nuclear policy and nuclear safety. The CSNFS construction contract was signed with the US company Holtec International in 2005 with operation planned to start in 2008, but the construction was delayed.
"At present, in essence, two issues remain unresolved: first, land allotment for construction in the exclusion area of Chernobyl NPP; second, there are no funding sources because the National Electricity Regulatory Commission is not accounting expenditure for construction of the CSNFS at the rate requested by Energoatom," Nedashkovsky said. Meanwhile, Holtec International is continuing to work "strictly on schedule with work expected to be completed in 2017.
