Holtec wins 41-unit spent fuel storage contract for Ukraine
Holtec Nuclear Corporation has secured a new contract from Ukraine's state nuclear operator, Energoatom, to supply 41 additional multi-purpose canister-based dry storage systems for spent fuel from VVER reactors at three of the country's operating nuclear power plants: Khmelnitsky, Rivne and South Ukraine. The agreement was signed on 26 August 2026 by Energoatom's acting chief executive, Pavlo Kovtonyuk, in Kyiv and by Holtec's chief executive, Dr Kris Singh, in Camden, New Jersey.
The contract supplements a 2015 restated agreement under which Holtec has already deployed transport and storage systems across Energoatom's fleet. Holtec did not disclose the total contract value. The company said the new systems will be built around the same proprietary equipment families already in service: vertical ventilated storage units, heavy transport casks, and transfer casks, together with ancillary loading, dehydration and welding equipment installed at each plant site. Spent fuel is encapsulated in double-wall canisters and transported to Ukraine's Central Spent Fuel Storage Facility, which carries a 100-year design life.
Strategic and financial context
The deal carries an explicit wartime rationale. Kovtonyuk noted that damage to Ukraine's energy infrastructure has pushed nuclear generation to supply roughly 70% of national electricity demand. He said the in-country storage capability avoids approximately $200 million a year in costs that Energoatom would otherwise incur by shipping spent fuel to storage facilities outside Ukraine, a dependency that existed when the country's reactors still operated under a Russian-era fuel supply and waste-management arrangement.
That financial logic predates the current conflict but has been sharpened by it. Ukraine's decision to establish a domestic consolidated interim storage facility, and to source its storage and transport equipment from a US supplier rather than through Russia's TVEL/Rosatom system, reflects a strategic energy-independence policy that has accelerated since 2022. For Holtec, the contract consolidates a supply relationship of more than two decades and extends its footprint across nine Ukrainian reactors.
SMR-300 and longer-term ambitions
Singh used the announcement to reiterate Holtec's intention to deploy its small modular reactor (SMR), the SMR-300, in Ukraine after the war. SMRs are compact nuclear reactors, typically rated below 300 MW of electrical output, designed with passive safety systems to reduce the capital and construction complexity of conventional gigawatt-scale plants. Holtec is already pursuing SMR-300 licensing in the United States, where the company expects its first two units to be built at its Palisades site in Michigan. The company is also refurbishing the Palisades plant itself, which would become the first US commercial reactor to be restarted after a permanent shutdown.
The broader SMR market is attracting growing capital interest, with developers including NuScale, GE Hitachi and Rolls-Royce advancing designs at different stages of regulatory review. Utility-scale demand signals from data-centre operators and energy-intensive manufacturers are accelerating procurement interest, though no SMR design has yet reached commercial operation in Western markets.
What to watch
Holtec did not disclose a delivery schedule for the 41 new systems or a timeline for the SMR-300 Ukraine deployment. Near-term milestones to watch include any NRC licensing progress on the SMR-300 design, updates on the Palisades restart schedule, and whether Holtec or Energoatom disclose the contract value as part of any future financing or grant application tied to Ukraine's post-war energy reconstruction effort.