29 Sep (NucNet): Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom will invest 2.7bn rubles (RUB) (€36.6m, $40.9m) to build a new near-surface long-term storage facility for low-and-intermediate radioactive waste, Denis Yegorov, deputy director-general of No Rao, national operator of nuclear waste handling, said.
The facility will be built near the city of Seversk, central Russia, at the site of the Siberian Chemical Combine, which comprises several nuclear reactors and plants for conversion, enrichment, separation and reprocessing of uranium and separation of plutonium.
The RUB 2.7bn investment does not include operational, control, and decommissioning costs, Mr Yegorov said. The operational costs will amount to RUB 100m a year while RUB 290m will be spent on controlling the site and its environment after final closure. The project will be financed from Rosatom’s “special reserve fund”, Mr Yegorov said.
Mr Yegorov said construction will begin in 2017 and is expected to be complete by 2021. Operation is expected to last from 2021 until 2035, with a possible five year extension up to 2040.
The repository will be used to store low-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste and will have a capacity of up to 150,000 cubic meters. It will be housed within the restricted zone around the Siberian Chemical Combine.
Mr Yegorov said the repository will receive radioactive waste, transported by rail, from other facilities in the Siberian federal district such as the Novosibirsk capacitor plant, which produces capacitors for the military and the electronics industry.
The facility is also designed to store radioactive waste from facilities that are part of Russia’s “Breakthrough” project, a federal R&D initiative to develop a fast neutron reactor and closed fuel cycle technology.
The repository is in the pre-investment phase, pending a full environmental assessment and a public debate at local level.
Before receiving the green light, the investment must be approved by the Russian nuclear regulator Rostechnadzor.
