On 27 June the first shipment of spent nuclear fuel in safe conditions sailed off from Andreeva Bay, a remote location in the Russian Arctic close to the Norwegian border. The event is a landmark in safeguarding the environment.
The facilities stored spent fuel from nuclear submarines built at the height of the Cold War. Accidents and a lack of funding saw the storage sites contaminated and fall into dereliction - presenting a real risk of radioactive material entering the Barents Sea and the food chain.
The EBRD has been at the heart of intense international work to stabilise the buildings and provide the infrastructure for spent nuclear fuel to be safely transported away.
