The Ukrainian authorities have announced plans to build a plant for the production of nuclear fuel at the site of the South-Ukrainian NPP. This was announced by the Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of the country, Igor Nasalik.

“Literally in six months we will announce a tender for the construction of the plant,” Nasalik said at a meeting of the International Energy Forum, organized by the Adam Smith Institute in Kiev on February 26.

According to the minister, foreign technologies will be used during the construction, which will be provided by the American company Westinghouse. It is planned that the United States will also co-finance the project.

However, specialists close to “NAEK Energoatom” (operator of all operating nuclear power plants in Ukraine) were surprised by such a statement by Nosalik, said Dmitry Marunich, director of the Kiev Institute of Energy Problems, in a conversation with RT.

“It's all some kind of fiction, nobody in Ukraine needs this plant. Kiev was going to build this enterprise together with the Russian side in the times of Yanukovich, as a result, the plant was never built. In theory and in practice, the needs of the Ukrainian market are covered by the Swedish factory Westinghouse, ”the Ukrainian expert believes.

According to Nasalik, the total investment in the company where it is planned to produce fuel powders and tablets will be $ 400 million.

For political purposes

In the early 2000s, the Ukrainian authorities decided to diversify the supply of nuclear fuel and use American fuel elements (TVEL) along with the Russian ones. In 2011, Westinghouse began to supply its TVEL to Ukraine.

Earlier in a conversation with RT, a professor at the Institute of the History of Natural Science and Technology named after S.I. Vavilov Vladimir Kuznetsov criticized such a decision, which, he said, could lead to an accident at a nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

“Original Westinghouse fuel in Soviet-built reactors cannot be technically placed. In the Russian design, fuel elements are arranged in the form of a package that has the shape of a regular hexagon, like bee honeycombs. The fuel elements of Westinghouse are arranged in a square package, and the fuel assembly, respectively, has the shape of a square, ”the expert explained in an interview with RT.

Kuznetsov also recalled the Czech experience in converting nuclear power plants of the country to American fuel.

“The Czechs recorded failures of 51 of 61 fuel assemblies. In addition to the threat of an accident, their damage led to significant energy production costs. Reactors had to be stopped out of turn to replace damaged cassettes, and the day of idle power of the unit results in a loss of about 10 million crowns for the operating organization, ”the expert noted.

Today, nuclear power in Ukraine is not developing, analysts say. Of the 15 nuclear reactors operating in the country, six have already exhausted their service life. In such conditions it is difficult to talk about the feasibility of creating an enterprise for the production of nuclear fuel.

According to Marunich, failures regularly occur at Ukrainian NPPs. Recently, the third power unit of the Zaporizhzhya NPP has risen; it cannot be started up. In 2012, there were reports of problems with the upgraded fuel TVS-WR from Westinghouse, recalled the Ukrainian expert.

  • Zaporizhzhya NPP
  • © Ralf1969 / Wikipedia

“However, so far there have been no statements about the insecurity of the Westinghouse fuel from the IAEA and the SNRCU. I believe that difficulties exist, but they are not spoken about in public, ”Maruchin emphasized.

According to analysts, Ukraine is trying to replace Russian nuclear fuel with an American copy for political purposes. The Ukrainian authorities say they are tearing all economic ties with Russia, including in the field of nuclear energy, said Konstantin Simonov, director of the National Energy Security Foundation, in an interview with RT.

“The American company Westinghouse is trying to replace Russian suppliers. This, of course, carries serious risks, since Ukrainian NPPs are tuned to Russian fuel elements. Americans are not at all concerned about the likelihood of another Chernobyl, ”the expert noted.

The question arises why Europeans do not react to the current situation, Konstantin Simonov is perplexed.

“It is unfortunate that Chernobyl has not taught the Europeans anything and they allow to conduct such experiments on Ukraine, and therefore on themselves. Ukraine is in a difficult economic situation, and the Americans will give them another loan to build an unnecessary enterprise. At the same time, the main thing is unclear - how Westinghouse is going to export spent nuclear fuel, ”the expert notes.

Unsafe storage

In 2017, the Ukrainian authorities announced the start of construction of a nuclear waste repository in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exclusion zone. However, there is no reliable information on the progress of work. Experts were then concerned about the statements of the official Kiev that the repository would be ground-based, and that nuclear waste would be stored in special containers.

Vladimir Kuznetsov, in an interview with RT, notes that a question arises where Ukraine will store American radioactive waste if the Americans completely oust Russia from the nuclear fuel market.

“Ukrainians use American fuel for BBP1000 (there are two types of nuclear reactors in Ukraine: VVR1000 and VVR440. - RT ), in particular at the South Ukrainian station. Recently, they have begun to develop fuel for the WWR440 reactors.

The main problem for Ukraine is that Americans do not take spent fuel for reprocessing. One of the main questions in this situation is whether Ukraine can safely store waste, ”the expert stressed.

According to Vladimir Kuznetsov, Kiev does not yet have adequate repositories for spent nuclear fuel.

“The agreement between Ukraine and Russia on the reprocessing of nuclear fuel for a period of 20 years was signed back in 1993. According to it, Russia supplies fuel elements, then takes the spent fuel for reprocessing, ”said the expert.

Dmitry Marunich also noted where the Ukrainian authorities are planning to store American radioactive waste.

According to experts, a similar situation with the unresolved issue of storage of radioactive waste is fraught with the most unpredictable consequences.