From 2023, Ukraine will have to store vitrified products of spent nuclear fuel reprocessing (high-level radioactive waste HLW) from Rivne, Khmelnytsky and South Ukraine nuclear power plants. Some time ago, the National Atomic Energy Generating Company ‘Energoatom’ sent this fuel to Russia.
This waste was recycled, and some of the radioactive materials suitable for reuse in industry or other fields were left behind. Unsuitable materials processed to an acceptable level of radiation safety will return to Ukraine.
The recycled waste should enter Ukraine in 2023. By this time, a special storage facility should be built in the Chornobyl zone, the construction of which should begin after the completion of tender procedures. The total amount of the contract for the construction of the storage facility exceeds UAH 4 billion.
According to the representatives of the Public Council under the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, the construction of the repository is taking place not only in violation of the deadlines set by the project documentation, but also in violation of current legislation.
According to the intergovernmental agreement, the start of import of vitrified HLW from the Russian Federation to Ukraine, after processing and aging, is scheduled for early 2023. First, HLW will come from the processing of nuclear fuel from NPPs with WWER-440 reactors (pressurized water power reactor delivering 440 MW of electrical power).
That is, it will be the return of recycled fuel from the Rivne NPP, because such reactors are located there. The amount of such waste is 260 cubic meters. And from 2025, HLW from the processing of nuclear fuel from Ukrainian nuclear power plants with WWER-1000 reactors will be imported. That will be the waste from spent and reprocessed fuel of Khmelnytsky and South Ukraine NPPs.
In total, not only 590 cubic meters of such HLW will return to Ukraine, but also more than eight thousand cubic meters of intermediate-level radioactive waste. In order to safely store this waste, three storage facilities must be built on one construction site, though.
In 2009, a law was passed, according to which the construction of each particularly dangerous nuclear facility – a new nuclear power plant or research reactor – takes place after the adoption of a separate law for each new facility.
This was done in order to ensure a wide discussion and involvement of people’s deputies in the adoption of such a serious decision. The same rule applies to repositories intended for the storage of spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive waste with a design shelf life of more than 30 years. This is exactly the case.
According to environmentalists, holding tenders for the construction of storage facilities in the absence of legislation is unacceptable. On August 11, 2021, the State Specialized Enterprise “Central Enterprise for Radioactive Waste Management”, which is under the management of State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management, for the fourth time announced a tender “Construction of a storage facility for intermediate storage of high-level waste (HLW), which will return from the Russian Federation after the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel of Ukrainian NPPs.”
The representatives of the Public Council also stressed that the approved project of the repository (held in 2019) without proper legal grounds is another gross violation of applicable regulations.
Given the current state of the issue and taking into account the need for additional research, the development of technical specifications for equipment important for radiation safety and their coordination with the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU), the construction may begin no earlier than 2023.
That is, even in the case of compliance with the design terms of construction (24 months) acceptance of HLW WWER-440 can begin no earlier than 2026. Besides, if we take into account the experience of construction of SNFS-2 (storage of spent nuclear fuel of “dry” type – a facility designed to receive, prepare for storage and direct storage of spent fuel assemblies and spent additional absorbers that have accumulated at the Chernobyl NPP, built in 2001- 2020), it is generally difficult to determine clear deadlines for the completion of construction.
In addition, according to environmentalists, there is a problem of insufficient funding for the construction of storage facilities for HLW. In accordance with current regulations, such storage facilities are financed from the State Fund for Radioactive Waste Management of Ukraine, which is replenished by ‘Energoatom’ at the expense of the environmental tax. In January-December 2020, the environmental tax amounted to UAH 1,015,004 thousand. At the same time, the estimated cost of the object is UAH 4,112,739,805 in 2019 prices (which will increase as of 2022 and in subsequent years due to inflation and rising resource prices). Even if the environmental tax will be accumulated only for the construction of the storage facility, at the end of 2023 the State Fund for Radioactive Waste Management will have funds in the amount of UAH 4,060,018,508.72, which may negatively affect the project completion dates.
As a way out of the situation, the following can be suggested:
First, it is necessary to recognize the existence of the problem at the state level.
Secondly, urgently consult with experts and the expert community.
Thirdly, promptly adopt the relevant law, conduct a qualitative environmental impact assessment, rewrite the terms of the tender, and so on. To do this, the National Security and Defense Council must work – this is clearly a problem of national security. And the Parliament. And the President who can file the law mentioned above.
According to https://greenpost.ua
Citizens of Ukraine who have completed a full course of vaccination against coronavirus (COVID-19) will be able to enter Latvia and Greece if they have supporting documents, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said. “Another EU country, Greece, remained open to Ukrainians. Our citizens can enter it on the same conditions as before,” Kuleba said in Twitter on Friday.
He later added that Latvia also remains open for the entry of vaccinated Ukrainians.
“We continue to work with European partners to preserve freedom of travel,” Kuleba said.
Thus, at the moment, the number of EU countries that have left the possibility of entry for vaccinated citizens of Ukraine has reached 15. In addition to Latvia and Greece, they include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Spain, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Slovakia, France, Croatia, Czech Republic and Sweden.
In January-October of this year, enterprises engaged in operations with ferrous scrap increased procurement of scrap metal by 38.2% compared to the same period last year, to 3.444 million tonnes.
According to the recent information of the Ukrainian Association of Secondary Metals (UAVtormet) on Tuesday, export of scrap metal for the specified period amounted to 503,500 tonnes, which is 15.5 times more compared to the same period in 2020 (32,400 tonnes).
At the same time, import of scrap in January-October amounted to 19,800 tonnes, which is 30% more than in January-October 2020 (15,200 tonnes).
Over ten months of 2021, the supply of scrap to the country’s metallurgical enterprises increased by 18.6% compared to the same period last year, to 2.777 million tonnes. The level of scrap metal stocks at metallurgical enterprises as of November 1, 2021 was estimated at 130,000-135,000 tonnes.
Poland has become the main destination country for labour migrants from Ukraine, according to the publication “Migration in Ukraine: Figures and Facts” prepared by the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations Agency for Migration in Ukraine (IOM).
“Emigration to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary has increased in a certain way. As before, Poland is the main destination for Ukrainians,” Doctor of Public Administration, expert on migration issues Olena Malynovska said at the presentation of the publication in Kyiv on Friday.
In particular, in 2020, some 1.329 million applications of Polish employers about their intention to employ a citizen of Ukraine were registered. It is estimated that the labor participation of Ukrainians in the Polish economy has provided 13% of its growth in recent years.
“There has been a noticeable increase in the number of applications by Ukrainians to acquire a long-term or permanent permit to stay abroad, in particular in Poland. The pandemic, which limited the possibility for circular migration, that is, periodic trips abroad, has led to an intensification of the tendency for a part of temporary labor migration to become permanent or for a long migration,” Malynovska said.
According to the publication, in 2020, private remittances to Ukraine amounted to $11.888 billion, while foreign direct investment amounted to $868 billion less.
In addition, in 2020, Ukraine issued 12,000 immigration permits and 293,600 permanent residence permits.
“The number of foreign students has been growing, and this is a positive phenomenon, but I want to draw your attention to the fact that last year there was a third less invitations for applicants, that is, the replenishment of the contingent of foreign students last year took place at a lower level. In the coming years, we will have a reduction in the number of foreign students,” Malynovska said.
According to the data indicated in the publication, the number of immigrants on the territory of Ukraine is decreasing, while the number of emigrants is growing. In particular, 4.997 million people of immigrants lived in Ukraine in 2020 (some 6.893 million people in 1990), while 6.139 million people of emigrants from Ukraine lived abroad (some 5.546 million people in 1990).
According to the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, as of July 2021, the total number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Ukraine reached 1.474 million people.
The publication informs that in 2020 the population of Ukraine was 41.6 million, while in 2018 the population was 42.4 million. It is noted that in 2020, some 616,800 people died in Ukraine, and 293,400 people were born.
It is indicated that Ukraine’s GDP is still below the 2013 level. In particular, in 2020, Ukraine’s GDP was $142.3 billion, while in 2013 it was $183.3 billion. At the end of 2020, the unemployment rate in Ukraine was 10.1%, which was the highest since 2014. It is noted that the poverty level in Ukraine is 23.3%, below the poverty line are 8.8 million citizens. Previously the Experts Club made an analytical program dedicated to the Ukrainian demography in 1990-2021 period. For more details on the analysis of the demographic situation in Ukraine, see the video posted on the Experts Club channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc04wUpexnE
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Ukraine since the beginning of this season and as of October 28 threshed 60.75 million tonnes of main grain and leguminous crops from a total area of 12.86 million hectares (a rise of 4.37 million tonnes in a week from October 21 to October 28), the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported on its website f on Friday.
According to the report, Kharkiv region with 4.61 million tonnes, as well as Odesa (4.58 million tonnes), Dnipropetrovsk (4.53 million tonnes), Mykolaiv (3.78 million tonnes), Vinnytsia (3.77 million tonnes) and Kherson (3.44 million) regions are leaders in threshing.
In total, 80.19 million tonnes of major grains, legumes, oilseeds (and sugar beets were dug out) from a total area of 20.89 million hectares have been harvested this season (a rise of 5.7 million tonnes in a week).
As the Ministry of Agrarian Policy said, as of the indicated date, 15.62 million tonnes of corn (a rise of 4.47 million tonnes) were harvested from 2.43 million hectares (44% of the forecast) and 13.56 million tonnes of sunflower (a rise of 0.88 million tonnes) from 5.87 million hectares (90% of the forecast).
In addition, farmers harvested 7.76 million tonnes (a rise of 1.53 million tonnes) of sugar beet from 164,630 hectares (73% of the forecast).
The ministry said that a total of 107,500 tonnes (a rise of 1,000 tonnes) of buckwheat was harvested from 81,600 hectares (98% of the forecast), and 178,800 tonnes of millet from 76,300 hectares (98%).
In addition, 3.05 million tonnes of soybeans (a rise of 450,000 tonnes) were harvested from 1.15 million hectares (90% of the forecast).
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy also recalled the completion of work on harvesting rapeseed, which harvested 2.91 million tonnes from an area of 1.01 million hectares.
The average yield of corn as of October 28 was 6.436 tonnes per ha, sunflower – 2.312 tonnes per ha, soybeans – 2.647 tonnes per ha, rapeseed – 2.86 tonnes per ha, sugar beet – 47.113 tonnes per ha, buckwheat – 1.38 tonnes per ha, millet – 2.344 tonnes per ha.
Ferroalloy enterprises of Ukraine in January-September of this year increased their output by 12.5% in total compared to the same period last year, to 668,270 tonnes, including 80,650 tonnes produced in September.
As the Ukrainian Association of Producers of Ferroalloys and Other Electrometallurgical Products told Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday, in January-September 2021, production of silicon manganese at Zaporizhia (ZFP) and Nikopol (NFP) Ferroalloy Plants increased by 16.6%, to 522,540 tonnes. At the same time, total production of ferromanganese at three plants decreased by 20.7%, to 78,270 tonnes: ZFP, NFP and Kramatorsk Ferroalloy Plant (Kramatorsk plant was idle in January-September 2021, while in the same period of 2020 it produced 34,090 tonnes).
In addition, in Ukraine, production of ferrosilicon (in terms of 45%) increased by 38.3%, to 62,060 tonnes, and metallic manganese – 2.44 times, to 5,400 tonnes.
Pokrov (previously Ordzhonikidze) and Marhanets Mining and Processing Plants (both located in Dnipropetrovsk region) which extract and concentrate manganese ore, in January-September 2021 produced a total of 1.274 million tonnes of manganese concentrate, which 6.6% lower compared to January-September 2020. At the same time, Marhanets Mining produced 418,290 tonnes of concentrate (a decrease by 0.5% compared to the same period in 2020), and Pokrov Mining – 855,870 tonnes (less by 9.3%).
In January-September 2021, Pokrov Mining and Processing Plant also produced 195,040 tonnes of iron ore sinter (up by 63.6% compared to the same period in 2020), supplying it to Dniprovsky Metallurgical Plant (DMZ), part of DCH Steel from DCH Group of businessman Oleksandr Yaroslavsky.
