In his presentation about the Russian view of the future of the nuclear fuel cycle Valentin Ivanov, a member of the Russian Duma, mentioned that one possibility for a spent fuel storage site that is considered today is Krasnokamensk in Chita region. If you buy the Minatom arguments for storing spent fuel in Russia, this may make sense – Krasnokamensk is considerable closer to the ports at the Far East, where the fuel would be unloaded.
The change of site would not necessarily make the spent fuel storage plan any more attractive – just recently Minatom admitted that there are no takers. What’s interesting is that Krasnokamensk was very much in the news lately – this is where Khodorkovsky, the (former) Russian oligarch, is serving his sentence. Aren’t there other places in Siberia?
(Originally posted on the 2005 Carnegie Non-Proliferation Conference web site)
The book
Comments
Just a few notes:
1. Krasnokamensk is NOT a Rosatom idea. Rosatom is still intended to develop Zheleznogorsk site.
2. It is likely Krasnokamensk would be more acceptable for both Russia and international community as a possible site for international spent fuel storage in terms of verification, transparency and access, since it is separated from weapons complex facilities, which is not the case for Zheleznogorsk.
I agree - it's more of Ivanov's idea (I didn't, in fact, say that it is Rosatom's). Carnegie site has his slides, by the way. His didn't emphasize the "weapon complex" issue, but it would be an important factor as well.