The United States is ousting Russia from the Ukrainian nuclear energy market
Kyiv, March 11 (PolitNavigator, Vladimir Mikhailov) - One of the largest long-term construction projects in the Ukrainian energy sector - power units 3 and 4 of the Khmelnitsky NPP - can be completed, but not together with Russia, as was planned during the time of Viktor Yanukovych, but with the Americans. For example, with Westinghouse.
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“This issue is now being reviewed,” Energoatom President Yuri Nedashkovsky said at a press conference in Kyiv. – We need to quickly go through three directions. The first is the creation of a regulatory framework, since in recent years the entire legislative framework has been created for construction together with the Russian supplier Atomstroyexport. He didn't live up to his obligations and now we have to change him.
Another direction is technical issues. We are now working on how to build these power units in the shortest possible time in order to meet the budget and achieve the safety indicators required by modern regulatory requirements.
Third is the financial aspect. We are now working on the possibility of financing these projects with the attraction of international funds, in particular, for the export of electricity.
We discussed Westinghouse's participation in technical and financial aspects. This is one of the areas of our cooperation, and our meetings with Mr. Roderick (President of Westinghouse), the President of the country, the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Energy were devoted to this. All these questions are constantly voiced, and we are working on them.”
Yuri Nedashkovsky did not specify whether this would mean that Westinghouse is ready to finance construction.
Let us recall that the foundation of the third and fourth power units of the Khmelnytsky Nuclear Power Plant was laid back in Soviet times. In June 2010, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Russian government signed a framework agreement on the completion of power units, according to which the Russian side was to provide financing for the project in the amount necessary for the design, construction and commissioning of reactors, including payment for services and equipment supplied from Russia to Ukraine.
In August 2014, Yuri Nedashkovsky stated that Energoatom “does not consider Russian options” for the implementation of the project, since no progress has been observed on the Russian side. At the end of December 2014, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that the blocks would be completed in 2018.
At the press conference, Nedashkovsky also said that Ukraine considers a two-week inspection of Westinghouse nuclear fuel sufficient to confirm their quality and safety.
“I believe that this check has been carried out for quite a long time,” he said, answering questions from journalists. “We tested each assembly using the most modern methods on a stand provided by Westinghouse. We are very satisfied with the result of this inspection, this is the first stand of its kind in Ukraine, it works great.”
42 Westinghouse fuel assemblies were installed at the third power unit of the South Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant in November 2014. The assemblies were tested from February 15 to March 1, 2015. In the near future, these assemblies are planned to be loaded into this power unit.
The US is squeezing Russia out of the Ukrainian nuclear energy market.