UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 26, 2018. Rosatom TVEL's Novouralsk-based asset Ural Electrochemical Combine completed the startup and commissioning of an impregnation treatment plant for finely dispersed nuclear materials, the plant's press service reports.

The new plant makes it possible to condition non-recyclable radioactive waste into the necessary activity levels. Only once the radioactive waste-filled vessel has been cemented does it get placed inside a container for further disposal.

All the necessary operations (preparation of the cement solution, delivery of the radioactive waste-filled vessel onto the work station, filling-up and hermetization of the vessel, deactivation if necessary, and, finally, withdrawal) are done automatically with the help of a control panel.

'Safe treatment of radioactive waste is the plant's top priority. This new impregnation treatment plant has proven efficient already at the startup and commissioning stage, and this is the first stage of a large-scale upgrades program for our radioactive waste treatment facilities,' says head of Ural Electrochemical Combine's Chemical/Metallurgical Department Yuri Skosyrsky.

The plant will keep on investing in further upgrades, with the total amount at over RUR 34bn by 2019.