Ukraine has denied Director General of the International Nuclear Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi a visit to the Russian-occupied Zaporozhye nuclear power plant until it is liberated, Energoatom reported.
“The Ukrainian side did not invite Grossi to visit ZNPP and previously denied him such a visit, stressing that a visit to the plant would be possible only when control over it was returned to our country,” Energoatom’s Telegram channel reported on Tuesday.
The message from Grossi that he received an invitation from Ukraine to visit the occupied ZNPP was called by the company another attempt to get to the plant by any means in order to legitimize the stay of the Russian occupiers there and, in fact, approve all their actions.
“There will be conclusions from the IAEA, such as “the plant continues to operate safely, the radiation background is normal, there are no radiation leaks, nuclear materials are kept safe, the Russian military and representatives of Rosatom take care of this, and there are no complaints against them,” Energoatom warns “.
At the same time, they explained the situation with the termination of the ZNPP online transmission of data to the agency on the state of affairs with nuclear materials, by which Grossi, in particular, explained the need for his visit.
“Loss of communication” between ZNPP and the IAEA was caused by the actions of the Russian invaders, who disconnected the Ukrainian operator Vodafone in Energodar, and the IAEA has a data transmission contract with Vodafone,” the NAEC described the situation.
At the same time, the company noted that all data collection points and servers that were under the control of the agency were closed and sealed. The information itself is accumulated on the server and will be transmitted when Vodafone is turned on.
“It seems very likely that it was the Russian side, by prior agreement with the IAEA, who made sure that the agency “lost control” without having access to this information, which means that the IAEA director general had a reason to come to the station,” Energoatom admitted.
In addition, they expressed the opinion that Grossi’s previous visits to Ukraine did not bring any benefit.
“Let us recall that on the way back after visiting the Pivdennoukrainsk NPP, he went to a meeting with the head of Rosatom, and together they reported to the world how good everything was at the Zaporozhye station,” the company stressed.
They also recalled that almost a quarter of the IAEA leadership consists of Russians, which casts doubt on the objectivity of its decision-making.
On June 6, Grossi tweeted once again that the IAEA was preparing an expert mission to the ZNPP, noting that it had stopped transmitting data, and referred to the invitation of Ukraine.
“Ukraine invited us, we will go there,” he wrote.
As reported, speaking at the opening of the meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors, Grossi called on the Board to support him in organizing a visit to the Zaporizhzhya NPP, and also noted that this issue needs UN support.
During the war, the IAEA carried out three expert missions in Ukraine – one to the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant and two to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom paid UAH 11.3 billion to the state budget in January-May 2022, which is twice the figure for the same period last year.
“Thanks to such indicators, Energoatom ranked third among all taxpayers in Ukraine and received special thanks for the financial support of Ukraine from the Central Interregional Department of the State Tax Service for Work with Large Taxpayers,” the company said on its Telegram channel on Monday.
As reported, Energoatom paid more than UAH 4.8 billion to the state budget in the first quarter of this year, which is a third or almost UAH 1.2 billion more than in the same period last year.
National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom has signed an export contract with the Moldovan state company Energocom, according to which it plans to supply 85,200 MWh of electricity to Moldova in June at a price of $77 per 1 MWh.
Energoatom has great potential to increase the production of electricity, so its export to Moldova, and subsequently to the neighboring EU countries, is an extremely promising area of the company’s trading activities,” the company said on its Telegram channel on Friday.
At the same time, thanks to the export, Energoatom will receive an additional source for financing of public service obligations (PSO), according to which the population is supplied with electricity.
As Energoatom said, Ukrainian exports will allow Moldova to diversify electricity supplies and strengthen the country’s energy security, since its power consumption largely depends on generation at the Moldavskaya State District Power Plant of Russia.
According to the results of daily auctions, on June 4 and on June 5, Energoatom bought 150 MW of interstate section towards Moldova on a flat schedule, another 200 MW on a flat schedule was bought by PJSC Ukrhydroenergo, which has been exporting electricity to Moldova since May 12.
Energoatom and American Westinghouse signed an agreement on the supply of nuclear fuel to all nuclear power plant (NPPs) in Ukraine on June 2 at the site of Khmelnytsky NPP, the company told Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.
“In connection with the refusal to purchase Russian nuclear fuel, Energoatom agreed with its strategic partner, Westinghouse, to increase the supply of American nuclear fuel for all Ukrainian nuclear power plants,” the company said.
We are talking about both the supply of nuclear fuel for existing nuclear power units, and for those that Energoatom and Westinghouse are still planning to build in Ukraine.
Fuel deliveries will be made from Westinghouse’s production site at Västerås in Sweden.
“At the same time, production of fuel assembly components will be carried out in Ukraine on the basis of one of the separate divisions of Energoatom, which is currently completing the qualification for production of assemblies for Westinghouse fuel,” the company emphasized.
In addition, on June 2, Energoatom and Westinghouse signed two more agreements at Khmelnytsky NPP: on increasing the number of nuclear power units to be built using the AP 1000 technology in Ukraine from five to nine units, and on establishing the Westinghouse engineering and technical center in Ukraine.
ENERGOATOM, NUCLEAR FUEL, UKRAINIAN NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS, WESTINGHOUSE
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine by resolution No. 430-r dated May 31, 2022 appointed Petro Kotin President of Energoatom.
The text of the document is posted on the government portal.
As reported, Kotin has so far served as interim president of the company, effective April 2, 2020. Prior to that, he worked as the general director of Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, a separate subdivision of Energoatom.
Energoatom is the operator of all four operating nuclear power plants in Ukraine. It operates 15 power units equipped with water-cooled power reactors with a total installed electrical capacity of 13,835 GW.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers at its meeting on May 31 canceled the competitive selection of managers, chairmen of executive bodies and members of supervisory boards of economic entities in the public sector of the economy for the period of martial law.
The state-owned enterprise NNEGC Energoatom has raised a UAH 1.5 billion loan from Ukreximbank (Kyiv) to purchase fresh nuclear fuel from Westinghouse in 2022.
“The borrowed funds will make it possible to increase the purchase of American fuel and ensure the efficient operation of power units of Ukrainian nuclear power plants after the rejection of Russian nuclear fuel,” the NAEC said in a statement.
As reported, Energoatom, at the beginning of a full-scale Russian military aggression, announced a complete refusal to purchase Russian-made nuclear fuel.
Energoatom is the operator of all four operating nuclear power plants in Ukraine. Operates Zaporozhye, South-Ukrainian, Rivne and Khmelnytsky stations with 15 power units equipped with water-cooled power reactors, with a total installed electric capacity of 13.8 GW.
