First consignment of Westinghouse fuel loaded into reactor at Ukraine's Rovno NPP

MOSCOW. Sept 11 (Interfax) - The first consignment of Westinghouse-produced nuclear fuel has been loaded into the VVER-440 reactor at Ukraine's Rovno Nuclear Power Plant, Ukrainian media reported, citing the country's Energy Ministry.

VVER-440 reactors previously operated only on Russian-produced nuclear fuel. The nuclear fuel was produced at Westinghouse's plant in Sweden, with specialists from Energoatom State National Nuclear Energy Generating Company of Ukraine (NNEGC) participating.

The contract to the supply the corresponding nuclear fuel assemblies for the VVER-440 reactor was concluded in September 2020. "The fact that we did this so quickly is a great success and a significant base for our cooperation with Westinghouse going forward; and it is only expanding," Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galuschenko was quoted as saying in the statement.

Energoatom, which operates all functioning nuclear power plants in Ukraine, completely abandoned purchasing Russian nuclear fuel in March 2022.

The Rovno NPP has four power units with total capacity of 2.835 GW.