On February 9th, 2012 the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the second reading has approved as a whole the Law «On Spent Nuclear Fuel Management with regard to siting, designing and construction of the centralized Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel from WWR type reactors of Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plants». 276 deputies have voted for the bill No 8795 approval.

This Law establishes legal principles for Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Management, SNF storages from WWR type reactors, creation of integrated system and optimization of Spent Nuclear Fuel Management from Ukrainian Power Plants.

According to the Law, CSFSF should become a part of the integrated complex for Spent Nuclear Fuel Management of State Specialized Enterprise "Chernobyl NPP". The Storage facility will be constructed at the site located between the villages Staraya Krasnitsa, Buryakovka, Chistogalovka and Stechanka of the Kiev region in Exclusion zone, at the radioactively contaminated territory.

Terms of CSFSF operation, dimensions and sanitary-protective zone and supervision zone limits, limit values of Spent Nuclear Fuel parameters, in particular the maximum enrichment to irradiation, the maximum burnup and a residual heat generation etc. will be necessarily defined in its design.

The total capacity of the centralized Storage Facility will make 16529 spent fuel assemblies from WWR -440 and WWR -1000 type reactors.

The "dry" surface storage technology with two-barrier system application for its isolation which is provided with the equipment of specially designed engineering container type systems will be used for SNF storage in the centralized storage facility.

It is stipulated that the Employer of the centralized storage facility construction will allocate 10 percents from the total amount of the construction cost estimation for social facilities construction in Slavutich, Ivankov and Polesskiy district in  Kiev region according to the list approved by the Kiev regional state administration. These funds should be taken into account in the cost estimate for centralized Storage Facility construction and transfer should be carried out proportionally to factually outstanding disbursements according to accounting records without the value added tax.

Besides, during review of the law amendments, the Verkhovna Rada has made the decision about informing of public authorities and population about the status of environment and radiation safety at nuclear installations and facilities at all stages of construction and operation

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On August 3-6, 2010, IAEA Expert Missions on “Lessons Learned on High Level Waste Management Generated During Spent Nuclear Fuel Management” and “Contractor Management Process” under IAEA TC UKR3003 were held at Chernobyl NPP. The Agency invited experienced experts in these areas to participate in the event: Dr. Norbert Molitor, an independent expert actively participated in SIP development, Mr. Keith Mombourquette, ex-Vice President of Ontario Power Generation (Canada), and Mr. William Harland Wake, Director of Used Nuclear Fuel Management Department of Ontario Power Generation.

During the missions, IAEA experts were informed about existing scheme of high level waste (HLW) management at Chernobyl site, as well as project management structure of International Technical Assistance (ITA) being under implementation managed by SIP PMU and Decommissioning PMU. In turn, IAEA experts provided the information on HLW management generated during spent nuclear fuel management, and presented lessons learned on implementing large projects on decommissioning infrastructure building (dry ISF, RAW Treatment Plant) both in Canada and Europe. Also there were discussed problems on contract management relating to engineering change control. Upon the results of EM activity, the experts will elaborate recommendations on how to improve structure for management of construction contracts and schemes of HLW management at ChNPP.