The Exclusion-Zone Storage Facility That Ended Sending Spent Nuclear Fuel to Russia

On May 28, 2026, Ukraine’s nuclear regulator handed the state nuclear power company Energoatom an “operating” license for a storage facility in the exclusion zone around the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The facility is named the “Centralized Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel” (Централізоване сховище відпрацьованого ядерного палива, abbreviated TsSVYaP). It is a facility for storing fuel that has finished its use at power plants, long-term, within the country.

In its announcement that day, Energoatom stated that the facility’s operation has saved about $200 million a year that it previously spent shipping fuel abroad. According to reports, the head of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (DIYaRU) has called the facility “a practical solution after ending cooperation with Russia in this field.”

When Spent Fuel Was Sent to Russia

According to Interfax-Ukraine (December 15, 2023), spent fuel from the South Ukraine, Khmelnytskyi, and Rivne nuclear power plants was shipped to Russia for storage and reprocessing until 2021, at a cost to Ukraine of about $200 million a year. No shipments were made to Russia in 2021–22. The figure of about $200 million a year is one that Energoatom and Holtec, the U.S. company supplying the storage equipment, have repeatedly cited.

The remaining plant, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, has its own dry storage facility on-site. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) report of September 2022 also lists Zaporizhzhia’s “dry storage facility” among the sites it inspects. The centralized storage facility receives fuel from the three other plants, as the same IAEA report also states. The Zaporizhzhia plant has been under Russian military control since March 2022 (see our article on Ukraine’s reactors).

What the 2012 Law Established

The facility’s location and size were established by Law No. 4384-VI of February 9, 2012, “On the Handling of Spent Nuclear Fuel Regarding the Siting, Design, and Construction of a Centralized Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel from VVER-Type Reactors at Domestic Nuclear Power Plants.” According to the Verkhovna Rada’s database, this law took effect on March 7, 2012, and had not been amended as of September 2026.

• Location: within the exclusion zone in Kyiv Oblast contaminated by the Chornobyl accident, on a site among four villages — Stara Krasnytsia, Buriakivka, Chystohalivka, and Stechanka (Article 1)
• Fuel received: spent fuel from VVER-440 and VVER-1000 reactors at domestic nuclear power plants (Article 1)
• Capacity: 16,529 spent fuel assemblies (Article 1)
• Storage method: above-ground “dry” storage, confining the fuel with a double barrier using container-type equipment (Article 2)
• Storage period: for the operating life of the facility, as substantiated by its design (Article 2)
• Local benefit: 10% of the estimated construction cost is to go toward public facilities in the city of Slavutych and the surrounding district (Article 3)

VVER is the name of a reactor type designed in the Soviet Union. The reactors at all three operating plants are of this type (see our article on Ukraine’s reactors).

From Contract to Operating License

The exclusion zone where the facility stands was under Russian military control for about a month from the first day of the full-scale invasion. Energoatom’s financial report for January–September 2022 states that the land where the facility stands was under Russian military control from February 24 to March 31, and that after regaining control in early April, it redrew its plans for construction and the start of operations. The course of the zone’s occupation is covered in our article on the Chornobyl reserve.

According to Interfax, the head of the regulator explained in December 2023 that trial operation of the facility began in 2023, with 13 containers brought in from the three plants. The trial-operation license, he said, was valid for three years from when the first fuel was loaded, with the arrangement requiring an application to move to full operation within that period. The May 2026 license corresponds to that full-operation stage.

Holtec’s Containers

According to Holtec’s announcement of September 8, 2026, at each plant the fuel is dried and sealed by welding into a double-walled multi-purpose canister (a cylindrical sealed container). This is placed in a HI-STAR 190 transport cask and carried to the storage facility, where it is placed, standing upright, into a HI-STORM 190 storage cask that cools it with airflow. The facility’s design life is 100 years, and the company states that the equipment itself is designed to remain usable beyond 100 years.

According to an announcement by the Ministry of Energy in January 2024, the containers were at that time manufactured in the United States, and Energoatom and Holtec had agreed on a plan to build a container factory in Ukraine. The same announcement carries Energoatom’s account that placing 13 containers in 2023 saved more than $150 million in costs for transporting and storing spent fuel, and that a single year of operation covered the entire construction cost.

A Facility Separate from Chornobyl NPP’s ISF-2

The exclusion zone has another dry storage facility with a similar name: the “Interim Spent Fuel Storage Facility (Dry Type)” on the grounds of the Chornobyl NPP itself, known by its English abbreviation ISF-2. According to the Chornobyl NPP, this facility receives and stores the spent fuel that had accumulated at that plant.

According to the Chornobyl NPP, ISF-2 completed the main stage of “hot testing” (testing with actual fuel) on December 14, 2020, having transferred 186 assemblies by that point. By January 2022, 1,698 assemblies had been moved into long-term storage.

Whose Words Are “Safe” and “Cost-Saving”?

The assessments of the facility made public so far are mainly the words of those who operate it, regulate it, and supply its equipment.

• Head of the regulator: the operating license confirms that the facility’s technology, equipment, safety systems, and personnel meet nuclear and radiation safety requirements and IAEA standards (Energoatom’s announcement of May 28, 2026)
• Energoatom: about $200 million saved per year; the facility will support the stability of nuclear power for the next 100 years (same source)
• Energoatom / Ministry of Energy: more than $150 million saved in 2023 alone, covering the construction cost (Ministry of Energy, January 2024)
• Holtec: the transport and storage equipment is designed to withstand more than 100 years of use (September 8, 2026)

These are the accounts of the parties involved. As of September 2026, this article does not cover any published, independent third-party assessment of the facility’s safety. In its report of September 2022, the IAEA states only that, once the facility becomes operational, it is expected to receive fuel from the three plants.