Security Service of Ukraine Treats Russian Strike on Nuclear Waste Storage Facility as War Crime

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has qualified a Russian strike on a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone as a war crime.

This was reported by the SSU press service.

Criminal proceedings have been opened under Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

According to SSU investigators, Russian forces struck the facility at 02:05 on June 7 using a Geran-2 drone. Debris of the drone has been recovered at the site and will be used in the investigation.

The strike damaged the spent nuclear fuel receiving and transfer building, as well as an IAEA administrative building.
The attack did not disrupt the facility’s operational processes.

Radiation levels remain within normal limits. No casualties were reported.

Investigators from the Security Service of Ukraine, under the procedural supervision of the Kyiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office, are working to identify and prosecute those responsible.

A fire covering an area of approximately 40 square meters was localized and extinguished within an hour by emergency responders and an operational group, according to the General Staff.

Centralized Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility

Ukraine officially commissioned the Centralized Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility in January 2024 despite wartime risks.

Spent nuclear fuel is stored using dry storage technology with a double-barrier environmental isolation system provided by engineered container structures.

The facility serves three Ukrainian nuclear power plants — Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, and South Ukraine NPPs. Spent fuel is transported by rail in special trains, and at Chornobyl it is transferred from transport containers into storage containers and then encased in concrete.

Before the official launch, 13 spent fuel containers had already been placed at the site in 2023.

The storage facility was designed to reduce Ukraine’s dependence on Russia, which previously handled reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel for post-Soviet nuclear power plants.