Ukraine's Energoatom plans to launch production of top nozzles for Westinghouse fuel assemblies in 2024

MOSCOW. Dec 27 (Interfax) - Ukraine's Energoatom intends to license top nozzles for Westinghouse fuel assemblies in 2024 to start producing them commercially at its facilities together with bottom nozzles.

"Ukraine continues licensing in order to increase commercial production of bottom nozzles for fuel assemblies using Westinghouse technology. A similar process is envisaged for top nozzles in 2024," Ukrainian media quoted Energoatom President Petr Kotin as saying on the company's Telegram channel during a meeting with Westinghouse CEO Patrick Fragman.

Kostin said Ukraine's launch of its own production line for fuel assemblies would have a positive impact on the global nuclear fuel market as Ukrainian fuel would be used not only to meet the country's own needs, but also for export to other countries.

Energoatom said Kotin and Fragman discussed strengthening cooperation between the companies and the loading in September this year of the first batch of fuel assemblies produced by Westinghouse Electric Sweden AB into a VVER-440 reactor at the Rovno nuclear power plant.

The company said other projects with Westinghouse included the construction of new nuclear power units in Ukraine using AP1000 technology, the design, production and servicing of reactor cooling systems to upgrade power units at a Ukrainian nuclear power plant and setting up a Westinghouse engineering center in Ukraine.