Hot testing has started at the Interim Storage Facility 2 (ISF-2) in Chernobyl where spent nuclear fuel from reactors 1, 2 and 3 at the destroyed nuclear station will be processed and stored in the world’s largest nuclear dry storage once full operations have started.
The start of hot testing on 10 September was approved by the Ukrainian regulator following the successful completion of previous system-wide trials of the facility, constructed by an international consortium led by the US company Holtec and financed by the international community through the Nuclear Safety Account, managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
The processing and storage of the spent nuclear fuel at Chernobyl is one of the key remaining tasks at the site. While the 1986 accident destroyed reactor 4, the more than 21,000 fuel assemblies used in the RMBK-type reactors 1, 2 and 3 were removed in the following years and provisionally stored in a wet pond facility.
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