US-based Holtec International has completed the production and acceptance tests for 20 HI-Storm casks and one multi-purpose MPC-31 canister for used nuclear fuel from VVER-1000 reactors in Ukraine, state-owned nuclear operator Energoatom said.

The equipment will be used at Ukraine’s national centralised storage facility for used nuclear fuel located in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

Energoatom said the equipment batch comprises the second phase of a contract between Energoatom and Holtec, which was signed in 2005, but that implementation was delayed because of “political reasons” among others.

Energoatom said Holtec will need to supply a total of four MPC-31 and six MPC-85 canisters, 20 HI-Storm and 3 HI-Star casks, and three railway platforms for transporting those.

According to Energoatom, delivery of the “main and auxiliary” equipment forming part of the first phase of the contract with Holtec was almost complete, with 94 pieces of the agreed 99 having been received.

Ukraine’s centralised storage facility for spent nuclear fuel is designed to store 16,529 spent fuel assemblies in 458 HI-Storm containers, supplied by Holtec.

The project was revived by the government in 2013 but construction did not begin until November 2017. Energoatom said that at the end of 2019 capital works at the project site were 97% complete.