NAEK Energoatom and the American company Westinghouse started the project of KNPP-5 and KNPP-6 construction using AR1000 technology.
The project launch ceremony was held on April 11 at the Khmelnytsky nuclear plant site with the participation of U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink and Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko (information is delayed for security reasons).
As Energoatom Acting Chairman Petro Kotin noted at the ceremony, the AR1000 is a proven Reactor III with unique fully passive safety systems, modular standard design, industry-leading performance and maneuverability.
“It is a more advanced and safer technology than the ones we currently operate. It is a new step towards a more modern, reliable and safe energy industry. And it is in Ukraine that Europe’s first power unit based on AR1000 technology will be built. It will be KNPP-5,” Kotin said.
“We are proud that we will join the history that Ukraine is making in the energy sector. We can already say that our cooperation is the wedding of the year,” Patrick Fragman, President and CEO of Westinghouse Electric Company, pointed out.
He emphasized that it is an improved technology with increased efficiency, and the unit itself is compact and lower cost compared to others.
“Here at the KNPP site, we note that the heavy equipment, which takes the longest to manufacture, is now ready, and this will significantly accelerate the construction schedule. Thanks to the assistance of the US government and the fact that the main agreements have been signed, it will be even faster,” he emphasized.
Fragman added that the AR1000 reactor is designed to operate for 60 years, but he said it is likely to be longer.
“These units provide a balancing act. This is a special feature of the American AR1000 technology. Now Russian aggressors are destroying Ukraine’s balancing capacity, and if we already had such a nuclear power unit, we could maneuver it and accordingly perform important functions for the energy system,” Galushchenko stressed.
“This is a project for the next long years. The US is set for fruitful cooperation with Ukraine… We are trying together with the US Congress to support you not only within the framework of armed aggression, but also economically,” Brink emphasized.
As for the sources of financing the project, according to Kotin, the company could provide it on its own, as it has large profits, but the lion’s share of them goes to cover the tariff for electricity for the population (PEP).
“Energoatom spent 128 billion UAH of net profit on the PCO in the previous year. If the company is exempted from the PCO, we will have $3 bln of profit for which we can build the unit. If not, we are talking about loans,” Kotin told reporters after the ceremony.
He added that the construction period of one block is tentatively 4-5 years, and its cost is about $5 billion.
As reported, on December 17, 2023 in Kiev, the head of Energoatom Petro Kotin and Westinghouse CEO Patrick Fragman signed a contract for the purchase of a reactor unit for Ukraine’s first nuclear power unit based on AP1000 technology.
The Polish Trade Inspectorate for Quality of Agricultural and Food Products (IJHARS) in Rzeszów has issued a decision to ban the circulation on the Polish market of two batches of biscuit cakes with a total weight of 10.55 thousand tons imported from Ukraine.
As the inspectorate said in a post on social network X on Monday, the decision was made due to incorrect labeling.
The decision was immediately enforced.
As reported, the IJHARS on April 9 in Rzeszów issued a decision to ban the circulation on the Polish market of three batches of baranques with a total weight of 5.34 thousand tons imported from Ukraine.
A few days earlier in Lublin, three batches of ice cream with a total weight of 8.48 tons imported from Ukraine were withdrawn from the Polish market due to defrosting.
In early April, the Polish Trade Inspectorate announced the largest fine in its history of 1.5 million zlotys (about $380 thousand) imposed on an importing company for importing 11.5 thousand tons of technical rapeseed and fodder wheat to the Polish market from Ukraine as counterfeit due to their subsequent use as food. In addition, decisions were taken to prohibit the import of 57.66 tons of tomato paste from Ukraine due to the presence of mold.
IJHARS chief inspector Przemysław Rzodkiewicz said in March that over the past year, 1.4% of batches of products from Ukraine inspected by the commission at the border were rejected.
From April 24 to May 7, 2024, Sweden will host the European Festival: Ukrainian Spring, which this year will bring together 12 cultural events. Stockholm will host a variety of events that reflect Ukraine’s interaction with the European cultural context in different ways.
The concept of the festival is to present Ukraine as an integral part of the common European cultural heritage. This connection is emphasized by the festival’s slogan: “Reflections in each other’s eyes – Ukraine in Europe and Europe in Ukraine.”
The organizers are convinced that today the ultimate goal of all cultural events dedicated to Ukraine abroad should be to focus public attention on Ukraine’s struggle and victory in the war unleashed by Russia. And the primary task is to once again remind people of the need for increased assistance to protect us from the aggressor.
Therefore, this year, each of the 12 days of the festival will be dedicated to one of the Ukrainian artists who went to defend their country and died at the front.
Business associations under the auspices of the Ukrainian Business Council are asking to finalize the government’s updated draft law on the Economic Security Bureau (#10439), as it leaves unaccounted for important proposals that jeopardize the reboot of the BEB.
“The most critical of the unaccounted proposals is the composition of the competitive commissions for the recertification of personnel and the mechanism for conducting the recertifications,” the 17 associations said in a statement circulated Thursday.
In their opinion, the detailed mechanism of re-certification should be set out in the draft law, and the commissions themselves should have a predominant voice of international experts who have an impeccable reputation and are well versed in the problems of law enforcement agencies.
Among other ignored proposals, the business pointed out the strengthening of the analytical function of the Bureau by providing free access for the BEB to existing state information systems and establishing criteria for the effectiveness of the work of the renewed BEB and their constant monitoring.
In addition, the appeal notes, it is important to limit access to positions in the BEB to persons with a dubious reputation based on the principle of reasonable doubt, given the small number of corruption cases that have resulted in convictions.
It is also crucial to retain in the final version of the draft the right to an overwhelming vote of international experts when electing the chairperson of the OIE, the document says.
In addition, in order to establish safeguards against unlawful pressure on business by law enforcement agencies, simultaneously with the reset of the BEB, the business requires amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure regarding the introduction of standards of prosecutorial activity, limiting the powers of the National Police and the BEB in terms of assigning instructions to SBU operatives, ensuring the possibility of appealing to the investigating judge against any actions or inaction of the investigator, inquirer, prosecutor.
In addition, the business proposes to introduce a ban on reopening proceedings on the same grounds and seizure of material assets not specified in the ruling of the investigating judge, to establish responsible storage and immediate return to the owners of seized property after the decision, to select a reasonable level of bail and interim measures.
Among other requirements – to impose on investigating judges the obligation to verify compliance with the requirements of jurisdiction and to return the terms of pre-trial investigation and the procedure for their extension in actual criminal proceedings, except for serious and especially serious crimes, referred to the jurisdiction of NABU.
At the same time, the associations noted that the updated government bill on the BEB took into account a number of proposals of the business community, in particular, the election of applicants for the post of the head of the Bureau by a commission with a predominant vote of international experts, immediate recertification of all employees of the Bureau and audit one year and three years after the appointment of a new head.
According to the forecast of Yaroslav Zheleznyak, the first deputy of the Rada’s specialized committee, the bill #10439 will be put to a vote in the first reading as early as Thursday.
BILL, BUSINESS ASSOCIATION, ECONOMIC SECURITY BUREAU, UKRAINE, БЕБ
Business can cope with the problem of staff shortage in Ukraine by investing in technological products and process automation, says Ruslan Shostak, owner of Eva and Varus chains and president of TERWIN Corporation.
“I don’t see a big problem (with staff shortage). Yes, it exists, you can’t turn a blind eye to it, but according to statistics, not so many people left Ukraine. Our whole business was inefficient in terms of human resource utilization, which made us uncompetitive with similar businesses in Europe and the world. But there is one solution for this: money. We don’t have money to reconstruct our production facilities and enterprises. If we have money, software products, new robotic equipment, we will be able to solve this issue,” Shostak told Business Wisdom Summit in Kyiv on Wednesday.
According to Shostak, despite a slight outflow of customers, his business is showing growth: last year’s growth was almost 100% in online and 30% in retail. In addition, new logistics hubs are being built in Kyiv, Lviv, and Dnipro.
Shostak noted, while in Ukraine business development is slowed down due to the war and difficult economic situation, global business is undergoing changes and using new opportunities, including artificial intelligence.
“Now we are focusing on geopolitics, but in the next 20 years we will face global economic problems, change of specialties, professions. It is artificial intelligence that is driving the most powerful changes right now,” Shostak believes.
As reported, in October 2023, 17 companies managed by Shostak, which collectively employ 30 thousand people, merged into TERWIN (TERWIN). We are talking about Omega LLC, Rush, Tervin Group, Tixid, Tavria Hub, Instant, Formsite, Digamma, Milton Group, Saltora Plus, Firma Ariant, New Construction 2017, Altair D, Apex N, Aspect D, Lattero, Charitable Foundation Ruslan Shostak BU. The total assets of the corporation are estimated at $1.6 billion. The combined revenue of the companies reached $2 billion in the pre-war period and was expected to reach $1.7 billion in 2023.
In November 2023, Shostak and UkraineInvest CEO Serhiy Tsivkach signed a memorandum on further support of the project for the construction of logistics hubs in four regions of Ukraine (Odessa, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv) with a total investment of more than $500 million.
BUSINESS, INVESTMENTS, staff shortage, TECHNOLOGIES, TERWIN Corporation, UKRAINE
German industry may not fully recover to levels seen before the energy crisis due to high prices for imported liquefied natural gas (LNG), according to Markus Krebber, chief executive of German energy company RWE.
“Gas prices in continental Europe, and especially in Germany, are structurally higher now because we are ultimately dependent on LNG imports,” he told the Financial Times. – German industry is at a disadvantage.”
Gas prices in Europe have fallen about 90 percent from peak levels seen in 2022, but remain about two-thirds higher than in 2019, the FT wrote, citing data from Argus.
Krebber criticized Angela Merkel’s government’s decision in 2011 to abandon nuclear power without finding an alternative to Russian gas.
“When you know exactly what you want to give up, you should immediately start thinking about introducing new technologies,” he said.
Analysts are pessimistic about the prospects for Germany’s economy, Europe’s largest. According to the assessment of the five leading research institutes of Germany, the country’s GDP in 2024 will grow by only 0.1% due to the decline in exports and weak domestic demand. In 2023, the German economy contracted by 0.3%.
According to S&P Global Commodity Insights, demand for natural gas in the industrial sector in Europe fell by 24% in 2023 compared to 2019. The company’s experts believe that about 6-10% of European demand will be lost irretrievably due to demand destruction.
At the same time, the U.S. has a consistent and comprehensive policy to encourage the return of production capacity to the country, Krebber said. “Europe has the same intentions, but so far there are no proper measures in place,” he added.
A survey by the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry last September showed that 43% of large industrial companies plan to move their business outside Germany, with the US a priority. Last year, German companies announced investments of $15.7 billion in projects in the U.S., compared with $8.2 billion a year earlier, according to fDi Markets.
