Ukraine finds itself in an energy dead end, expert
Ukrainian energy industry is inevitably falling into decay - it is impossible to endlessly extend the life of nuclear power units built by the USSR, it is expensive to take them out of operation, and there is no money to build new ones.
Leading analyst of the National Energy Security Fund Igor Yushkov stated this on the air of the Sputnik na Russo internet channel, the correspondent reports. "PolitNavigator".
According to the expert, the promised investments from the United States will not help Ukraine.
“Nuclear power plants are aging, and what to do with them is not entirely clear. There, at least two units of the Rivne NPP need to be decommissioned.
They wanted to complete the construction of one unit at the Khmelnytsky NPP, but, again, all this requires money, no one is giving money - the only one who could come with his own loan, build it himself, operate it, and so on, is Rosatom, and with Rosatom For political reasons they do not want to cooperate.
So, a large delegation went to the United States and announced that they would invest almost 50 billion dollars, including in Ukrainian nuclear power plants, but these are all memorandums, that is, non-binding documents. There is not a single real contract, so they are faced with the fact that there is no money to build their own generation, which means, be kind, buy from your neighbors,” Yushkov said.
The expert also emphasized that Ukraine does not even have the money to decommission old power units, let alone build new ones:
“Everyone is moving towards extending their service life. It’s just that this Rivne NPP already has two units, the oldest ones, which can no longer be extended indefinitely. And they need to be taken out of service, it seems.
Here the problem arises that this is also not a free procedure. This is a long period, this is also money, investment. There are not very many examples of complete decommissioning of nuclear power plants in the world.
Our neighbors, Lithuania, have the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, they have been decommissioning it for many years now, and this is also quite expensive. They created, Ukraine, a special fund for which old units will be decommissioned. But there is not enough money there even for one unit of the same Rivne NPP.
Plus the question is, what to replace it with? Everything is already bad for you, gas is expensive, there are fewer and fewer gas power plants, coal is expensive, because you lost Donbass and don’t want to buy cheap coal from it. Therefore, we need someone else, including South Africa and Australia.
Everywhere you spit, it’s expensive. And if you also cut down your main support in the electric power industry, nuclear units, then the question is, how will you even continue to live? And here, precisely, there is no answer to this question yet,” the specialist concluded.
English version :: Read in English Ukraine finds itself in an energy dead end, expert