Ukraine will spend $35 million on the railway in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
During a government meeting on Wednesday, June 14, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the project for the reconstruction of the railway from Vilcha station to Yaniv station in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone that will cost 908 million hryvnia or $35 million.
Reconstruction of the railway track will enable the construction and operation of the Central Spent Fuel Storage Facility (CSFSF) and storage facilities for intermediate storage of highly radioactive waste that will be returned from the Russian Federation. The project will take 36 months to complete.
In August 2016, Ukraine entered into a $260-million loan agreement to finance the construction of the CSFSF.
The construction of the storage facility will enable Energoatom to significantly reduce the costs associated with handling spent nuclear fuel, which is mainly exported to Russia for temporary storage. For Energoatom, the cost of Russian companies' SNF (Spent Nuclear Fuel) storage services amount to almost $200 million annually.