The Pilot Demonstration Center at the Mining and Chemical Combine in Zheleznogorsk successfully completed a test run of its reprocessing line. It reprocessed a spent fuel assembly delivered from the VVER-1000 reactor at Balakovo NPP. According to Rosatom, the Center will use a new reprocessing technology that does not produce liquid radioactive waste. The first reprocessing line is said to have the capacity of 5 tHM/year.

The experiment is part of the plan to create a new large spent fuel storage and preprocessing hub in Zheleznogorsk. It includes a wet and dry storage facility that can accept fuel of VVER-1000 and RBMK reactors. The Pilot Demonstration Center, a reprocessing plant with reported capacity of 250 tHM/year, will test the technologies that then will be used to build a larger reprocessing plant at the site. The hub also includes a MOX fuel fabrication facility that was launched in 2015.