US company to build nuclear fuel plant in Ukraine
Ukraine has reached agreements with Westinghouse with regard to the increase of supply, and the future construction of a nuclear plant in the country. Interfax-Ukraine reported that this was said by the Minister of Energy and Coal Mining of Ukraine, Ihor Nasalik.
“We have agreed on the diversification of supplies to nearly half of the nuclear units. We have also agreed to build a nuclear fuel plant in Ukraine,” Nasalik said.
He said that they reached these agreements during his recent trip to the US.
Nasalik reiterated the fact that Russia currently provides nearly 95% of nuclear fuel supplies to Ukrainian nuclear power plants.
He also said that Ukraine has signed a loan agreement on the construction of a dry nuclear fuel storage facility in the Chernobyl zone.
“During the trip to the US, a loan agreement worth $260 million was signed for the construction of a dry storage facility for spent nuclear fuel. It will be built in the Chernobyl zone. Not only is it a highly economical and cost-effective project, it also gives us a chance to diversify the storage and utilization of the spent nuclear fuel,” Nasalik explained.
Russia had previously reported that Ukraine had resumed payments for storage and processong of spent nuclear fuel. It was also reported that Ukraine and Russia have signed a contract for the delivery and enrichment of raw uranium materials in 2016.
Currently, nuclear fuel provided by Westinghouse is used in nuclear unit №3 of the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant and nuclear unit №5 of the Zaporizhia NPP. The loading of TBC-WR into nuclear unit №2 of the South-Ukrainian NPP is scheduled for December 2016.
It was previously reported that in 2015, Ukraine spent $643.5 million on nuclear fuel, of which most was imported from Russia.