Yes, there is no doubt that the American company Holtec International has experience in the construction of spent nuclear fuel storage facilities in the United States. In particular, the company has technologies for the construction of dry storage facilities for the temporary storage of containers for the spent nuclear fuel (SNF). However, technologically, their reliability is ensured by a dry climate, which prevents corrosion of structural materials and eliminates the ingress of water into waste tanks. In addition, Holtec International has no experience in building large, capacious storage facilities for long-term (more than 50 years) storage of SNF in wet and cold climates, with the significant change of seasons.

Having no such experience, the only thing that Holtec International has achieved on the territory of Ukraine is loading two tanks with double walls with SNF into a temporary storage facility (ISF-2) at the Chernobyl NPP site. However, industry experts note that the containers with nuclear waste were placed in the already built ISF-2 facility, and not in a dry storage facility. In addition, the location of tanks in the ISF-2 storage is horizontal, and not vertical, as provided by the American tank storage technology. It is unknown what all this will lead to. After all, it is the reason that the launch of the ISF-2 by Holtec International specialists took place with delays, nobody knew in advance whether it would be possible to safely place everything in the storage.

Thus, the choice and involvement of Holtec International in the construction of a central nuclear power plant creates an extremely dangerous situation, consisting of a number of factors. In particular, the construction of a high-risk nuclear facility is entrusted to a company that has no experience in designing spacious nuclear storage facilities for long-term storage in a climate with a change of seasons. The Ukrainian administration seriously underestimates the danger of negligent storage of nuclear materials and don’t consider the risks to the environment and the health of its own nation. In fact, with such an amateurish approach, the territory of the country can turn into a garbage dump for nuclear waste, because Kiev does not even have its own specialists and a modern scientific and technical base, designed for the elimination of nuclear waste and the processing of spent nuclear fuel, planned for accumulation in the Central Nuclear Power Plant.

Andrey Vasiliev