The money Ukraine will have to pay for imported nuclear fuel would be enough build several similar plants while the construction of the Ukrainian-Russian plant for the production of nuclear fuel has been dragged out for far too long, Andriy Starostyn of the Komentari weekly wrote, according to KyivWeekly.
President Viktor Yanukovych planned after his visit to the U.S. and Russia to call a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) to resolve the situation with the failure to meet the deadline for the transfer of technology of the Smolinsk Nuclear Fuel Production Plant, currently one of the leading Ukrainian-Russian joint ventures. The NSDC postponed analyzing the details of this project to October. Under the terms of the tender for the construction of the plant, the Nuclear Fuel Ukraine concern should own 50% +1 shares in this company, while the Russian nuclear fuel company TVEL will own the remaining 50% -1 shares.
The Ukrainian government, in which there are very few experts in the field of nuclear energy, must not launch the SNFPP in parts, but faster and on a larger scale. After all, this nuclear fuel project appears to be the only positive achievement of the government in the energy sector. On the contrary, it is much more convenient for the Russian side of the project to drag out this process.
Al of the above bothers Ukraine’s presiden, who is not a proponent of the construction of the SNFPP being broken down into stages by sponsors controlling the parliamentary coalition in Ukraine, so the discussion by the Security Council of the plant’s construction could have unpredictable repercussions, KW concludes.
