UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 16, 2017. Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Station is about to start transferring the spent fuel off its shut-down Power-Generating Units 1 and 2 (Reactors AMB 100 and AMB 200) onto Mayak in Ozersk, Chelyabinsk Region, the station’s press service reports.

The logistics and technological solutions for the transfer got developed in full compliance with all the safety requirements. Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Station and Mayak did a number of tests together to go over every small detail to do with loading, transfer, unloading, and storage of spent fuel. A trial transfer of an imitation shipment took place in 2016.

‘The nuclear station is now ready to start transferring its spent AMB reactor fuel so as to get its power-generating units withdrawn from operation. The transfer is expected to be completed by 2023. This is seen as an important radiation security project,’ the station’s press service says.

The station’s Power-Generating Units 1 and 2 with uranium-graphite channel-type reactors AMB 100 and AMB 200 (AMB stands for ‘Large Peaceful Atom’) were among the first products of the Soviet large-scale nuclear power engineering. The two units got shut down in 1981 and 1989, respectively, and the dismantling process began in 2014.