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 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.
Westinghouse Electric Sweden AB has accredited Atomenergomash, a separate subdivision of Energoatom, as a supplier of top and bottom nozzles for the company’s fuel assemblies; production of these components is expected to start within six months, Energoatom’s press service reported.
“Necessary equipment has been installed at Atomenergomash to launch manufacturing. At present, pre-commissioning, commissioning, and operation qualification process are going to come to the end. Manufacturing top and bottom nozzles for Westinghouse fuel assemblies are expected to begin within six months,” Hryhoriy Horodner, General Director of Atomenergomash, said.
It is also noted that accreditation was preceded by the successful completion of an audit of Atomenergomash’s integrated management system for compliance with the requirements of ISO 9001:2015 “Quality Management System. Requirements,” SQSR 13-067 “Supplier Quality System Requirements,” as reported by Westinghouse to Energoatom.
“These components are likely to be used not only for manufacturing fuel assemblies to be supplied by Westinghouse for the needs of Ukrainian nuclear power plants, but also for the needs of other consumers of these Westinghouse products across the globe,” Energoatom said.
One of the priorities of Energoatom for 2022 is to launch production of some components for fuel assemblies using Westinghouse technology at Atomenergomash, the report said.
Atomenergomash is a multifunctional service subdivision of Energoatom, which develops and manufactures certified products as well as carries out unit and restoring repair of heat-exchange and heat machinery equipment, pipeline components for nuclear and thermal power plants of Ukraine.
Westinghouse will supply nine batches of fuel for Ukrainian NPPs in 2021, President of Westinghouse’s Europe, Middle East and Africa Operating Plant Services Business Unit Tarik Choho has said.
“In total, in 2021, we will deliver fuel for nine refuelings, and in 2022 it will be seven,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, for all the years of cooperation with National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom Westinghouse has supplied 1,626 fuel assemblies for nuclear power plants to Ukraine.
Chokho recalled that Westinghouse fuel for VVER-1000 reactors is already in operation at six out of 15 nuclear reactors in Ukraine. “These are units Nos. 1,3,4,5 of Zaporizhia NPP, as well as units Nos. 2 and 3 of Yuzhnoukrinsk NPP. Moreover, five units out of six [units Nos. 1,3,5 of Zaporizhia NPP and No. 3 of Yuzhnoukrinsk NPP] are fully loaded with Westinghouse fuel,” he said.
In addition, starting in 2022, Westinghouse fuel for VVER-1000 reactors will also be used at unit No. 3 of Rivne NPP, and two years later Westinghouse will supply fuel for VVER-440 to unit No. 2 of this plant.
Head of National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom Petro Kotin and Senior Vice President for Commercial Operations at Westinghouse Electric Company Elias Gedeon have discussed cooperation in the construction of new NPP units in Ukraine using AP1000 reactors.
According to the press service of Energoatom, in particular, during the negotiations held in Kyiv on June 29, the parties agreed to create a joint working group.
Energoatom said that the use of the American AP1000 technology – a next Generation III+ double loop reactor with a capacity of about 1100 MW, the design of which has fewer components, and standardization and licensing of which help to reduce the construction time and cost – in the long term will enable the company to provide a high level of safety and reliable operation of nuclear generation and respect for the environment.
As reported, Energoatom and Westinghouse have been cooperating since 2000 in the supply of nuclear fuel.
Ukraine in January-June 2019 acquired nuclear fuel for a total amount of $98.402 million.
According to the State Statistics Service, over the six months of this year Russian-made fuel worth $47.173 million and Swedish fuel for $51.229 million was purchased for Ukrainian nuclear power plants.
Thus, the share of Ukrainian purchases of nuclear fuel for the reporting period from TVEL (Russia) in monetary terms amounted to 47.9%, from Westinghouse (Sweden) some 52.1%.
