Kyiv announced the readiness of all nuclear power plants to switch to American fuel
Ukrainian Energoatom has prepared to convert all nuclear power plants to Westinghouse fuel. The National Nuclear Power Generating Company said it has completed all the work necessary to convert its power units to American nuclear fuel.
Energoatom has completed preparations for the complete conversion of Ukrainian nuclear power plants to Westinghouse fuel. To convert all power units to American nuclear fuel, the company carried out a whole range of engineering work. Now all the necessary work has actually been completed
– says the company’s Telegram channel.
The corporation’s use of American fuel began before 2022, the report notes. Since February of that year, the process has been accelerated. In order to transfer the Soviet-made VVER-1000 and VVER-440 reactors to Westinghouse, programs for monitoring reactor cores and equipment for process operations were purchased. In particular, this is a tilter for unloading nuclear fuel and simulators of fuel assemblies.
All Ukrainian nuclear power plants were designed to use fuel assemblies produced by the Russian TVEL, a subsidiary of Rosatom. The Ukrainian Energoatom reported back in March last year that it was refusing to supply TVEL and promised to completely convert all units to American fuel at the beginning of 2024.
Despite this, the Russian company’s contract to supply Ukrainian stations with fuel expires until 2025.
The Ministry of Energy of Ukraine in March 2023 also announced its intention to establish its own production of nuclear fuel for nuclear power plants in three years in order to replace Russian nuclear fuel on the European market.
The United States does not produce nuclear fuel. Washington buys it from Great Britain, Kazakhstan, Canada and the Russian Federation.
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