Country nuclear fuel cycle profile: Ukraine

Thirteen WWER (two WWER-440 and eleven WWER-1000) power reactors are in operation and have a total capacity of 11.835 GW(e). The first reactor, an RBMK-1000, started operation on 26 September 1977 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Nuclear generation accounted for about 45% of the country's total electricity production in 2002. There are plans to construct new fuel cycle facilities, with the exception of enrichment plants, by 2010. Ukraine has not yet decided about its nuclear fuel cycle policy. Uranium production in Ukraine started in 1959 using underground mining. The Zheltiye Vody hydrometallurgical plant was brought into production in the same year. Its nominal production capacity is 1000 t U/a. It is planned to increase the uranium supply capability from 50% to 100%. There is no domestic fuel fabrication. At present fuel is flown in from the Russian Federation. A joint venture for the fabrication of fuel for WWER-1000 reactors exists with the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan. From the beginning of the nuclear programme until the present day, spent fuel from WWER reactors has routinely been returned to the RT-1 reprocessing plant and to the central storage facility at the Krasnoyarsk mining and chemical plant in the Russian Federation. After spent fuel reprocessing, radioactive wastes are to be taken back. Spent RBMK fuel is stored in AR storage pools and at the wet AFR spent fuel storage facility (SFSF-1) on the Chernobyl nuclear power plant site. The total capacity of the wet SFSF-1 is approximately 2500 t HM. Construction of a dry version, SFSF-2, is under way in the area of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. A dry AFR storage facility is being commissioned at the Zaporozhe nuclear power plant, which in its initial stage will have a capacity of approximately 160 t HM