Russia to process nuclear waste of Uzbekistan’s NPP 

The spent fuel of the nuclear power plant (NPP), which will be built in Uzbekistan, will be processed in Russia, the press service of the UzAtom agency said.

It is planned that the spent fuel of the future NPP will be transported to Russia for reprocessing. During reprocessing, all valuable nuclear material will be recovered, and the remainder will be solidified by evaporation and pressing. Subsequently, it will be transported back to Uzbekistan, as the import of radioactive waste into the country is prohibited according to the Russian legislation. 

Each country must store its radioactive waste on its territory, the press service noted.

“In accordance with foreign experience in this field, radioactive waste is stored in the country where this waste was produced. Representatives of the UzAtom Agency were personally convinced of this when familiarized themselves with the activities of foreign nuclear power plants in Japan, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine and the United States,” the UzAtom stated.

In accordance with the intergovernmental agreement between Uzbekistan and the Russian Federation on cooperation in the construction of a nuclear power plant, the issues in the field of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste management will be regulated by separate agreements and contracts.

In this regard, specialists from the UzAtom Agency and the State Nuclear Energy Corporation Rosatom are currently working closely on the issue of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and radioactive waste (RW) management.

In the near future, a strategy for the management of SNF and RW will be prepared and approved, taking into account international experience in this area.