KIEV, September 26 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's government has proposed allocating 450 million hryvnias ($90 million) in next year's budget to set up a strategic nuclear fuel reserve, the country's UNIAN new agency said.
"I think we will start gradually forming a fuel reserve next year," Yuri Nedashkovsky, head of state nuclear power utility Energoatom, was quoted as saying on Thursday.
He said the allocation had been included in the draft budget for 2009.
PRIORITIES FOR UKRAINE'S NUCLEAR INDUSTRY were the focus of a June 12 strategy meeting led by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. According to a statement released by Ukraine's nuclear operator, Energoatom, Tymoshenko said that immediate priorities include the construction of two new units at the Khmelnitsky nuclear power station and life extension for Rovno-1 and -2 and South Ukraine-1, which are now scheduled to end production between 2011 and 2013. She also identified the treatment of spent fuel and the development of a complete fuel cycle capability as priorities.
