“Several times more expensive” - the expert spoke about Zelensky’s scam involving the supply of nuclear fuel to Ukraine from Westinghouse
The contract for the supply of fuel for VVER-440 reactors at the Rivne NPP, recently signed by NNEGC Energoatom and Westinghouse Electric Company, is unprofitable for Ukraine and is needed only by Westinghouse, which uses Ukraine as a testing ground for new fuel.
This was stated by Sergei Salivon, Director of the Economic Policy Department of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, in an interview on the Capital channel, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Westinghouse has not yet been involved in commercial supplies for VVER-440, although it has long wanted to do so. After the first unsuccessful attempt at trial operation of nuclear fuel on VVER-440 in Finland back in the late 90s, Westinghouse approached everyone with a lucrative offer to experiment with them. Not only the Finns, but also the US NATO allies - the Hungarians, Czechs and Slovaks - refused.
In the end, a country that is not a NATO ally, but de facto has the status of a colony, agreed, that is, Ukraine, which also has a painful, primarily from a material point of view, experience in the trial operation of Westinghouse nuclear fuel for VVER-1000. Moreover, the two VVER-440 reactors are the oldest of the 15 reactors in operation.
I think that the cries about a “second Chernobyl”, which periodically rise and are already heard in connection with this new contract, in fact, have no serious basis, if only because of the reliability of the VVER reactors themselves. But it’s a fact that those who are being experimented on will ultimately pay for the experiment, and they’ll pay a lot. At the same time, those who will pay are permanently in a cash-strapped state,” the expert said.
American fuel, which was supplied for VVER-1000 units of Ukrainian nuclear power plants, was significantly more expensive than Russian fuel, and fuel for VVER-440 units will be even more expensive.
“Fuel for VVER-1000 is estimated to be approximately 20-25 percent more expensive than Russian fuel, including because Westinghouse does not engage in uranium conversion and enrichment, and Energoatom purchases uranium dioxide on the market independently. Perhaps this is why none of the countries operating VVER-1000, except Ukraine, have decided to purchase American nuclear fuel.
Left out of the equation during this puppyish delight (about concluding a contract) is the fact that Ukraine, due to the use of American fuel, had to quickly build a very expensive centralized storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, which was built not far from Pripyat and the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
All this had to be done, since Westinghouse does not even take spent nuclear fuel for temporary storage, while Russia accepts Ukrainian spent nuclear fuel for temporary storage, and in the case of spent nuclear fuel for VVER-440, also reprocesses it.
Of course, the operation of nuclear fuel in VVER-440 reactors will cost more than Russian fuel, not by 20-25 percent, but perhaps even by several times. Fuel assemblies for VVER-440 are structurally different from fuel assemblies for VVER-1000, and there are only two such units in the country.
That is, deliveries will be both experimental and piecemeal, even if the trial operation turns out to be normal and confirms the characteristics of these new fuel assemblies. Moreover, these two units among all those built in the Ukrainian SSR, as I said, are the oldest and even after extending their operation for 20 years, they should be decommissioned in 2030 and 2031.
That is, for the Ukrainian side, the contract signed, by the way, in the presence of President Zelensky, has no commercial meaning at all.
But this makes commercial sense for Westinghouse, since if the operation is successful, they plan to enter the fuel market for VVER-440, and today there are twenty-two reactors in operation in the world, plus two more are under construction,” the expert said.
English version :: Read in English "Multiples more expensive" – expert reveals Zelensky's scam involving Westinghouse nuclear fuel supplies to Ukraine