Westinghouse (the United States) and National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom have signed two cooperation agreements providing for the start of projects for the construction of two new reactors at Khmelnytsky NPP using AP1000 technology.The documents were signed during the international conference Atomic Opportunities for National Development on Monday in Kyiv.As an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported, one of the agreements provides for the purchase of services from the U.S. company for the design of reactors, the other for the purchase of a simulator and equipment with a long service life.According to Petro Kotin, Acting President of Energoatom, the purchase of the simulator in advance will make it possible to train personnel long before the reactors are put into operation.”AR 1000 is a new technology for us. Right now we need to start training inspectors so that they can then start training personnel. We don’t want to waste time on this later, so we buy the simulator first of all,” Kotin said.In addition, the agreement provides for advance financing of equipment that has a long manufacturing cycle.”This is done in order not to delay construction. Some equipment has been manufactured for about three years,” the head of Energoatom explained.Kotin added that the agreements with Westinghouse also provide for the preparation of pilot projects for the construction of reactors, in particular, the preparation of infrastructure and testing of the site where they will be located.In turn, as Minister of Energy Herman Haluschenko said, the agreements signed with Westinghouse are extremely important, since the AP 1000 reactors are unlicensed in Ukraine.”I would not like the licensing issue to drag on. And this is a huge work, it is necessary to process a colossal array of documents. Therefore, we do everything as quickly as possible. And we received assurances from the U.S. side of their as much as possible assistance,” Haluschenko said.As reported, within the framework of the September visit of the President of Ukraine to the United States, Energoatom and U.S. Westinghouse Electric signed a memorandum on the construction of a total of five reactors in Ukraine. The cost of the project will be about $25 billion.
