The agreement has been reached during the talks in Svanhovd, Norway, in the middle of November. The specialists from VNIPIET (the All-Russia Planning and Research Institute for Complex Power Technology), which developed the Radon reconstruction project, representatives of Murmansk administration and Sweden took part in the meeting, Interfax reported with the reference to the Murmansk administration economics department.

The Radon director Kudrat Mahmudov, however, said to Interfax, that after the operator is chosen and the contract is signed, the preliminary financing would start and cover the project analyses, discussions and priorities selection. The reconstruction itself will start earliest in 2007, the director said. The financial problems did not allow beginning the construction of the facility checkpoint. The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development finances the project. It is expected that the operating company will sign the direct contracts with the contractors who will carry out the work on site.

The Radon storage facility in Murmansk county is one of 16 national storage facilities for low and medium level waste generated by Russian industry and medical activities. More than 70 local businesses and institutions have delivered waste to the facility. The storage facility can accommodate 800 m3 of solid and 200 m3 of liquid radioactive waste. The facility was taken into use in 1965. Due to violations of Russian guidelines for the storage of radioactive waste, on June 18, 1993, the Russian radiation protection authority (GAN) ruled that the facility would no longer be permitted to accept radioactive waste. Consequently, the waste that was formerly delivered to the Radon storage facility was henceforth stored at the site of its creation. At the beginning of 1995, 350 m3 of waste with an activity of 531 TBq were stored at various user facilities. Furthermore, an additional 370 TBq is stored in 10 containers holding radioactive waste from the nuclear icebreaker Lenin.