The Lithuanian State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate (VATESI) on Tuesday issued an operating license for a new interim spent fuel storage facility (ISFSF) at the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP).
The operating license allows INPP to commission the facility and begin hot trial tests with 10 new design casks, which involves loading the casks with spent fuel and moving them to interim storage, VATESI said in a press release Wednesday. If the tests are successful, VATESI will then grant permission for commercial operation at the new storage facility. INPP plans to move all spent fuel to the ISFSF before the close of 2022.
Located in Visaginas, the storage facility will hold about 190 containers housing about 16,000 spent fuel rods for 50 years, according to the release.
