In another development an ocean away, Holtec was given the release by the Ukraine’s State Specialized Enterprise Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant to begin the final phase of the dry storage project to complete the site’s 100 year life facility that will store the 22,000 used fuel assemblies from Chernobyl Units 1, 2, and 3. The first phase was completed in November of 2010 with Ukraine’s authorities issuing a positive safety conclusion on Holtec’s design documentation. The final phase, scheduled to span nearly six years, will involve the supply of 231 double wall canisters manufactured at Holtec’s fabrication plant in Pittsburgh, PA, the establishment of a state-of-the-art fuel processing facility including a hot cell, numerous physical modifications to the site, and issuance of the intermediate and final safety analysis reports.
The Chernobyl dry storage project was begun by Holtec in September 2007. The first phase of work involved the preparation of safety and environmental qualification documents in compliance with Ukrainian norms and standards. The project utilizes several cutting edge technologies developed by Holtec International, among them an innovative double wall canister, the world’s largest forced gas dehydration system, and a state-of-the-art hot cell to dismember the conjugated RBMK fuel assembly. These substantive achievements have not come a day too soon for the people of Ukraine, who will shortly mark the somber 25th anniversary of the horrific accident of 1986.