The National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom seeks to raise $250 million from Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA-ML) for building a centralized spent nuclear fuel storage facility before October 2017, Energoatom President Yuriy Nedashkovsky reported.
“The work has been started. At the end of the summer I signed the contract with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. We are waiting to receive the funds, and finish this work within one year as planned”, he said.
He said that Energoatom Vice President for Economy and Finances Aidyn Aisin was staying in the United States where he was organizing the preparations for a technical, economic and environment audit.
Nedashkovsky said that Energoatom financed the works to build the spent nuclear fuel storage facility using funds foreseen in the electricity transmission tariff set by the National Commission for Energy, Housing and Utilities Services Regulation. Works carried out by Holtec and Atomprojectengineering are financed.
He said that at present the examination of the project and the preliminary facility safety report were being finished.
In early October Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers changed the intended end-use of land parcels located in the Chornobyl zone to build the facility.
“Here (land and construction works) there is a delay that we estimate will last some nine or ten months. We will actively work on cutting the gap and supply first containers to the facility site in 2018”, he said. (Interfax/Business World Magazine)
