Ukraine plans to start making Westinghouse-type fuel for its NPPs in 3 years - Energoatom head

MOSCOW. March 17 (Interfax) - Ukraine plans to begin producing its own fuel for its nuclear power plants (NPPs) in three years using the Westinghouse company's technology, according to Pyotr Kotin, president of Energoatom, Ukraine's nuclear power plant operator.

"Our production line based on the Westinghouse technology will start to operate in three years' time. We will produce a certain amount of fuel on our own and will take the rest from Westinghouse. The share of Westinghouse will be approximately 50%," Ukrainian media quoted Kotin as saying in an interview with the BBC.

"It is not a facility of energy infrastructure. Rather, it is a plant that produces nuclear fuel. It does not have any nuclear material. Therefore, it is totally safe," he said.

Seven of the Ukrainian NPPs' 15 reactors are currently using Westinghouse fuel, Kotin said. Even though Energoatom stopped buying nuclear fuel from Russia's JSC Tvel, there are still sufficient stockpiles of Russian nuclear fuel, so the last Russian assembly will exit Ukrainian reactors in six years.

"One fuel matrix, or one fuel assembly, stays at the reactor core for four years. It means that after it is loaded into a reactor, it will function there for four years. And you yourselves can calculate how long we will keep using Russian fuel if we still have two years' worth of this fuel at the warehouses. In other words, we will load them for two years and they will stay there for another four years. And the last Russian assembly will exit our reactors in six years' time," Kotin said.

As reported, Ukraine has long planned to build a nuclear fuel production facility in its territory. In 2019, the then-energy minister of Ukraine, Igor Nasalik, said that the technology for a fuel assembly production plant could be provided by the Westinghouse company.

Energoatom said on February 17, 2022 that Westinghouse Electric Sweden AB had accredited Atomenergomash, a separate subdivision of Energoatom, as a supplier of top and bottom nozzles for the company's fuel assemblies.

Accreditation was preceded by the successful completion of an audit of Atomenergomash's integrated management system for compliance with the requirements of ISO 9001:2015 "Quality Management System. Requirements", SQSR 13-067 "Supplier Quality System Requirements".

Energoatom fully stopped buying Russian nuclear fuel in March 2022.

Energoatom and Westinghouse signed an agreement on June 2, 2022 to supply nuclear fuel to all Ukrainian NPPs with 15 power units.