Nuclear Fuel From Chernobyl Reactors Loaded For Longer-Term Storage

The first canister of spent nuclear fuel from the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine was loaded on November 18 into a new, more modern storage site. The Interim Storage Facility 2 (ISF-2) is inside the exclusion zone around the reactor that exploded in 1986. One double-walled canister contains a total of 93 spent fuel assemblies from three reactors that were not destroyed in the disaster. More than 21,000 spent-fuel assemblies will make this journey over the next several years. The ISF-2 has an expected lifespan of at least 100 years and is the largest dry-spent-fuel storage facility in the world.