KIEV, Oct. 6 – A centralized storage facility for radioactive waste is to open in the Chernobyl zone in 2013, Head of the State Agency for Managing the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone Volodymyr Kholosha told reporters during a briefing in the Chernobyl zone (Kiev region).

"This storage facility will allow all of the radioactive waste from the territory of Ukraine that is stored at special facilities of bankrupt enterprises to be collected together and stored safely here for at least fifty years," he said. The official added that there is a lot of radioactive waste in Ukraine, especially near large cities, and these territories have to be cleaned up.

According to Kholosha, the storage facility will have enough capacity to accept 21,000 items of radioactive waste per year.