President wants to store used nuclear fuel in Ukraine

At today’s meeting on urgent measures to reform Ukraine’s municipal economy, Victor Yushchenko remarked that “the nation that consumes nuclear energy must know how to store used nuclear fuel and understand some controversial aspects of how power plants function,” President's press office reported.

He said Ukraine should formulate a atomic energy concept. Our country has four nuclear power plants with fifteen units but we do not know what to do with used nuclear fuel. According to international agreements, it is transported to the Russian Federation but the price we pay for these services constantly grows. Over the past three years, it increased from USD 245 to 720. This year, the country will have to spend USD 120 mln. However, this fuel has to be returned to Ukraine by 2012. We must solve the problem by that time, he said.

The Head of State added that it was really important to distinguish between used nuclear fuel and nuclear waste. Waste can no longer be used, while fuel contains uranium and plutonium, which can be reused for nuclear reactors.