Framatome To Build
Chernobyl Fuel Storage

A consortium led by Framatome SA signed a contract for the design and construction of facilities to store the spent fuel from the four RBMK units of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
in Ukraine.

The construction is the first part of the infrastructure necessary for final shutdown of Chernobyl.

The contract includes:
• Design and construction of a facility that will be used to package 25,000 spent fuel elements. This delicate operation consists of separating the two fuel bundles and then confining them in capsules, which are themselves inserted into stainless steel fuel storage canisters.
• Design and construction of reinforced concrete structures for dry storage of the 256 canisters.

Construction of the packaging plant should be finished within 2½ years, with the supply of the fuel storage canisters thereafter. The consortium will subcontract 40 percent of the contract value of the work to Ukrainian companies.

In 1996, Framatome obtained a similar contract for a VVER-type NPP at Medzamor in Armenia. The dry storage facility built there was designed to receive the spent fuel assemblies previously stored in the plant’s spent fuel pit. The Armenian facility was Framatome’s first order for a dry storage facility, for which the company holds a license to use the American Nuhoms process, developed by the Vectra Company, a subsidiary of Cogema.

Framatome’s consortium partners have previously done work related to Chernobyl, however, the consortium will be the first to undertake large-scale decommissioning work at the plant. The work is scheduled to commence in spring 2000.

The contract is financed by the Nuclear Safety Account, a G7 fund administered by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The Chernobyl NPP belongs to the Ukrainian electric utility, EnergoAtom.