Ukraine's Energoatom plans to have own nuclear fuel based on Westinghouse technology in 2027
MOSCOW. Oct 17 (Interfax) - Ukraine plans to build a facility to produce nuclear fuel based on the technology of the United States company Westinghouse in 2026, and the parties are currently working on an agreement on transferring the technology and supplying the required equipment so that Ukraine could begin producing such fuel in 2027, Ukrainian nuclear power plant operator Energoatom head Pyotr Kotin said.
"There's an agreement signed with Westinghouse on building a line to produce Ukrainian nuclear fuel for VVER-1000 reactors based on their technology. We're also actively discussing some other agreements, particularly on technology transfer and equipment delivery for this line. We plan to complete its construction in 2026 and are doing all we can to have our own fuel in parallel with Westinghouse fuel starting 2027," Ukrainian media quoted Kotin as saying in a commentary at an international conference dealing with the development of Ukraine's nuclear power industry hosted by Energoatom on October 15.
Ukraine does not need to build a facility to produce fuel for VVER-440 reactors, as it operates only two such reactors at the Rovno Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), and Westinghouse itself is capable of producing enough fuel to supply the plant. Kotin said.
A first batch of Westinghouse fuel was loaded into Unit 2 of the Rovno NPP in September 2023.
"We have received a third shipment of fuel for VVER-440 from the American company," Kotin said.
Concerning the construction of Ukraine's own production line, Kotin said Energoatom is considering three sites for the project. He did not name either the locations or the scope of the project.
"We plan to use the company's own funding from revenues it gets from selling electricity. This will be part of our investment and financial plans," he said.
Alexander Rykhlo, Westinghouse business development manager, said the company viewed the construction of a facility to produce fuel assemblies for VVER-1000 reactors in Ukraine as an important and logical joint project with Energoatom.
"We have made several important steps. We have signed a roadmap, and we're conducting negotiations on a number of aspects, such as technology transfer and equipment delivery. We have also built a 3D model of this facility's building. Some other operations have been done to implement this project, as well," Rykhlo said at the conference.
Ukraine loaded pilot shipments of Westinghouse fuel into its reactors back in 2005, and this fuel proved to be reliable and compatible with the reactors operated in the country, Rykhlo said. As concerns the use of Westinghouse fuel at the VVER-440 reactor of the Rovno-2 NPP, he described it as successful and said Westinghouse has confirmed its commitments to load its fuel to all units of Ukrainian NPPs.
As reported, in order to diversify sources of nuclear fuel supplies to Ukrainian nuclear power plants, Energoatom and Westinghouse launched a project in 2000 to grade the U.S. company's nuclear fuel. The parties signed a first nuclear fuel delivery contract in 2008.
In June 2022, Energoatom and Westinghouse signed an agreement on supplying nuclear fuel to all Ukrainian NPPs.
In September 2023, Energoatom became the first power generating company in the world to have implemented a project for diversifying nuclear fuel supplies to operate Soviet-design VVER-1000 and VVER-440 nuclear reactors. Ukraine has not procured nuclear fuel from Russia since 2020.
