voltv.com.ua
The US-Japanese Westinghouse is expected to supply more than one third of nuclear fuel for Ukraine’s nuclear plants in 2016, which is seen as a significant step in diversification of energy sources, as almost all the fuel purchased in 2015 had been produced in Russia, according to Ukraine’s Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn.
"I hope that in 2016, five out of 13 deliveries will be from Westinghouse. I think it will be a very significant step to diversify supplies," the minister said on Monday during a briefing in Kyiv.
He stressed that Ukraine is actively seeking ways to diversify fuel supplies in order to reduce dependence on Russia.
"Today, yet 12 of the 13 supply come from Russia," said Demchyshyn.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Yuzhnoukrainka NPP has successfully completed in March of this year loading the upgraded TVS-WR fuel manufactured by Westinghouse at the Power Unit 3. In April, this unit was connected to the country’s power grid.
In 2016, Zaporizhia NPP plans to load the first batch of Westinghouse fuel at its Power Unit 5.
UNIAN memo. Cooperation between the Ukraine’s Energoatom and Westinghouse was initiated in the framework of an intergovernmental agreement between the US and Ukraine from 2000 on the qualification of nuclear fuel for Ukraine and continued under the commercial contract, signed in 2008. Energoatom has been developing cooperation with Westinghouse to diversify the supply of nuclear fuel for Ukrainian nuclear power plants.