NNEGC Energoatom President Petr Kotin and British Rolls-Royce SMR director for cooperation with partners Sophie McFarlene-Smith signed a memorandum of understanding on March 20 that envisages the construction of a power plant with small modular reactor (SMR) in Ukraine.
“Under the memorandum, Rolls-Royce SMR is committed to supporting Ukraine’s recovery by deploying a plant-based small modular reactor (SMR) power plant that will be capable of generating enough carbon-free electricity to supply a million homes for more than 60 years,” Energoatom said in Telegram on Tuesday.
Overall, the document provides an opportunity for the companies to work together to find future opportunities to deploy Rolls-Royce SMR small modular reactors (SMRs) in Ukraine as it begins to recover.
“Cooperation between Energoatom and Rolls-Royce SMR has reached a new level. Today we have signed an agreement that will give Ukraine the opportunity not only to start a high-quality post-war reconstruction of power infrastructure, but also to become one of the first countries in the world to attract promising small modular reactor technology to do so,” Kotin was quoted by the company as saying.
For his part, as Rolls-Royce SMR CEO Tom Samson noted, the British government supports Ukraine and its citizens.
“With Britain’s own nuclear technology, we can potentially help the people of Ukraine recover quickly and restore energy security and independence,” he stressed.
As reported, Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko said last week Ukraine plans to build up to 20 SMRs as part of a “green transition” to replace the thermal generation units destroyed during the war
In turn, Petro Kotin, president of NNEGC Energoatom, said that SMRs are very promising for Ukraine and at the moment the nuclear specialists jointly with the Ministry of Energy are developing many programs with different world companies which develop technology of small modular reactors.
In particular, Energoatom is currently cooperating in the SMR direction, in addition to the British Rolies Royce, also with the American Westinghouse offering its AP-300 reactor, NuScale and Holtec International, as well as with a couple more companies with which memorandums have been signed.
The Verkhovna Rada has postponed consideration of draft law No. 8067 on transforming NNEGC Energoatom into a joint stock company as a whole to the next plenary session, parliamentarian Yaroslav Zheleznyak (Golos faction) said.
“We began to consider #8067 – the transformation of Energoatom into a joint stock company as a whole. Started, but did not finish, as they delayed the amendments,” wrote Zheleznyak in the “Telegram Channel” on Friday.
According to the deputy, the vote for the law will already take place at the next plenary session.
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada on October 19, 2022 supported the first reading of the draft law № 8067 “On Joint Stock Company” National Nuclear Energy Generating Company “Energoatom”.
According to the explanatory note to the document, its goal is to establish the legal, economic and organizational basis for the establishment and operation of the joint stock company “National Atomic Energy Generating Company “Energoatom” by reorganizing (transforming) the state enterprise “NAEK “Energoatom”.
The document defines the procedure of formation and functioning of the joint stock company NAEK Energoatom, 100% of shares of which are owned by the state.
According to the document, the founder of the company is the state in the person of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which decides on the establishment of the company and manages the state corporate rights of the JSC.
It is stipulated that the shares acquired by the state as a result of the company’s formation are not subject to privatization.
NNEGC “Energoatom” state enterprise will increase the raise to the official salary of the pro-Ukrainian personnel of Zaporizhzhia NPP for work in difficult conditions of the occupation starting from January 1, 2023.
“Already from January 1, 2023 the size of this allowance will increase up to 50%. Ukrainian ZNPP personnel will receive the money immediately after the deoccupation of the plant and its liberation from the Rashists,” the company said in a Telegram channel in the evening of December 27.
Initially “Energoatom” introduced a surcharge at the rate of 20% of official salary, which is accrued for work in difficult conditions of occupation for the personnel of Zaporizhzhya NPP in April 2022.
In general, as NNEGC Energoatom president Petro Kotin said, the company guarantees payment of all financial obligations to ZNPP personnel with a pro-Ukrainian stance. We are talking about salaries, allowances for work in difficult conditions of the occupation, remuneration at the end of the year and bonuses for the Day of Power Engineers.
“The patriots will receive all these payments in full, even if they are in forced downtime due to the fact that they are not allowed to work by the Rashists,” Kotin, quoted in the Telegram channel, stressed.
In addition, the trade union committee of the NAEC assumed financial support of the evacuated family members of Energoatom workers, who remained at their work places, and of the evacuated personnel. As of today, all of them in total have already been paid more than 74 million hryvnias, the company noted.
“At the same time, female workers with children under seven years of age from September to November this year were set an additional payment in the amount of the minimum wage. The total amount of this assistance amounted to more than 16 million hryvnias,” the NAEC added.
Also, as reported by the head of the primary trade union organization “Energoatom” Alexei Lych, the company is currently working out algorithms of compensation of possible financial losses of the pro-Ukrainian personnel of ZNPP in case the occupants are not allowed to work.
On December 26, Energoatom approved a collective agreement for 2023-2024.
All nine nuclear power units located in Ukraine-controlled territory are operating in the power system as of 6 p.m. Saturday, nuclear power plant operator NAEC Energoatom said in a telegram.
“Unfortunately, now the capacity of one of the power units is limited by 600 MW due to the unpreparedness of the power system to take all possible amount of electricity from it, as the energy infrastructure facilities were again damaged as a result of yesterday’s shelling,” Energoatom specified.
The Company reminded that another six power units of the occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP are stopped and their switching on is blocked by the “Rashites,” while the plant continues to constantly consume about 100 MW for its own needs from the power system of Ukraine.
As reported, after the November 23 shelling, all power units of Ukrainian nuclear power plants were disconnected from the grid. On December 13, after remedial repairs, the ninth 1000 MW unit was connected to the power grid, and by the new massive Russian shelling in the morning of November 16, all nine units of the Pivdenno-Ukrainian, Rivne and Khmelnitsky NPPs, which are located in Ukraine-controlled territory, were in operation.
According to Jakob Hartmut, vice president of NAEK Energoatom, the December 16 shelling resulted in the total operating capacity of the plants under control decreasing from 7 to 1.5 thousand MW.
There are four operating nuclear power plants in Ukraine, including 15 units, equipped with water-water power reactors with a total installed electric capacity of 13.835 GW. Apart from ZNPP with six 1000 MW units, there is Rivne NPP (four units, two 1000 MW and two 440 MW), Pivdenno-Ukrainian NPP (three 1000 MW units) and Khmelnitsky NPP (two 1000 MW units).
NNEGC “Energoatom” refuted the information about a fire at the second power unit of the Zaporozhye NPP, circulated in Telegram channels about an hour ago.
“We officially inform you that this is not true. As of 15:40 on September 29, 2022, no fires and fires were recorded at the power units of the Zaporozhye NPP,” the company wrote on its Telegram channel on Thursday.
NNEGC Energoatom, in a comment to the Interfax-Ukraine agency, did not confirm the information that appeared in the Telegram channels about the fire at power unit No. 2 of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (ZNPP).
“We are preparing a refutation,” the company said.
As reported, a number of Telegram channels reported a few minutes ago about an emergency situation at the ZNPP – a fire at unit No. 2.
