"On May 28, the official handover of the license for the 'operation of a nuclear facility' lifecycle stage took place at the Centralized Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility site. Oleh Korikov, Head of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine, presented the relevant authorization documents to Pavlo Kovtonyuk, head of the operating organization and acting Chairman of the Board of JSC NNEGC Energoatom," the statement reads.
The document confirms that the facility's technologies, infrastructure, safety systems, and personnel comply with the highest nuclear and radiation safety requirements, as well as international standards for spent nuclear fuel management. The issuance of the license was preceded by a state review of nuclear and radiation safety regarding the materials submitted to justify the license application.
Prior to the issuance of this license, the Centralized Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility operated under a separate commissioning license.
As previously reported, on May 12, the Board of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate approved the conclusion of the state nuclear and radiation safety review for the CSFSF.
Trial operation of the CSFSF began in 2023, when Ukrainian nuclear power plants completed their first shipments of spent nuclear fuel. The permit for trial operation was issued for a period of three years.
The CSFSF is an autonomous nuclear facility designed for the long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel from the South Ukraine, Khmelnytskyi, and Rivne nuclear power plants. Previously, spent fuel from these three NPPs was shipped to Russia for storage and reprocessing, which cost Ukraine approximately USD 200 million annually.
