Lithuania has successfully completed cold trials at its new interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility for power units 1 and 2 at the shuttered Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, State Enterprise Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant announced Monday.
Completion of cold testing clears the way for IAE to conduct hot trials at the facility, using spent nuclear fuel, and moves the operator one step closer to transferring fuel from the site’s power units to the storage facility. Hot trials are expected to start at the end of September 2016 and wrap up in the summer 2017. The storage facility would then begin operating in fall 2017.
Built to power Lithuanian grids and a system in the former Soviet Union, Ignalina operated from 1982 until 2009. The site’s decommissioning is estimated at $3.37 billion. Total storage capacity for the interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility is about 17,000 fuel assemblies, or 190 casks, according to enterprise materials. There are about 22,000 fuel assemblies at the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant.
