GROUND BREAKS ON OPIC-SUPPORTED PROJECT TO BOLSTER ENERGY SECURITY IN UKRAINE

Ukraine’s national nuclear operator has broken ground on an OPIC-supported project to build new storage for the country’s spent nuclear fuel, using equipment manufactured by a Camden, New Jersey company.

OPIC earlier this year committed $250 million in political risk insurance in a project that will bolster energy security in Ukraine through the construction of a nuclear fuel storage facility in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Holtec International of Camden is supplying storages casks and other equipment along with training over a five-year period.

The project, which is being built to store fuel from three of Ukraine’s four nuclear power plants, will significantly expand Ukraine’s capacity to store spent nuclear fuel, and will provide an alternative to the current system of shipping spent fuel to Russia. It underscores OPIC’s commitment to both Ukraine – where the Agency’s portfolio has more than quadrupled in recent years – and to helping American businesses enter new markets abroad.

Shortly after joining OPIC earlier this year, President and CEO Ray Washburne traveled to Ukraine to explore investment opportunities. “I saw firsthand some of the country’s challenges, as well as its potential for high-impact development projects,” he said at the time, noting that this fuel storage facility and other OPIC-supported projects in Ukraine “build on OPIC’s long history of supporting American interests around the world.”

Source: opic.gov