STOCKHOLM, Sweden, May 27, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- AvestaPolarit has secured an order for approximately 2,400 tonnes of stainless steel plates and tubes, which will be used to build the world's largest processing and interim storage system for spent nuclear fuel. The facility, which will be established near Chernobyl in Ukraine, will be used to store spent fuel coming from the Chernobyl reactors. About 23.000 fuel elements coming from the three not damaged Chernobyl reactors, now all shut down, will be processed and put in this storage close to the Chernobyl plant. The order, worth an estimated SEK 55 million in total, came from JSC "Sumy Frunze NPO" in Ukraine. The project is due to be commissioned during 2003.
After technical and financial problems had initially caused the project to be postponed, it was decided at the end of 2001 that French company Framatome ANP (Areva Group) would buy the stainless material for this project on behalf of Chernobyl NPP in Ukraine. When the order was re- negotiated in Ukraine recently, AvestaPolarit succeeded in the face of very tough competition from primarily German producers. AvestaPolarit's agent in Ukraine, the Swedish branch office of CETAB in Dnepropetrovsk, has offered very valuable help in achieving this recent success.
The local fabricator of the stainless steel storage system will be JSC "Sumy-Frunze NPO". The project is being financed by the "Nuclear Safety Account," and a grant of EUR 119.6 million will be administered by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The project is being coordinated by Westinghouse and the contractor consortium is led by Framatome ANP.
JSC "Sumy Frunze NPO," which employs more than 20,000 people in Ukraine, is one of the sub-contractors to Framatome ANP and is responsible for the fabrication of the stainless steel storage system.
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