Energoatom plans to continue mutually beneficial contracts with American companies with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of State. This involves supplies of nuclear fuel, custom-developed technologies for Ukraine and prospects of nuclear energy development in the country for the next half a century
I visited Washington in October, where I met with Ted Garrish, Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy; representatives of the U.S. Department of State; officials of the Atlantic Council, including John Herbst, Eurasia Center Director; Maria Korsnick, President of the U.S. Nuclear Energy Institute; and Bud Albright, CEO of the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council. These kinds of meetings are truly inspiring. In the course of discussions with American colleagues, I received full support for our intentions regarding the corporatization of the company, achieving transparency and openness of management and the completion of construction on unfinished and new power units at nuclear power stations.
The long path
To make Energoatom a successful European company is our priority. U.S. officials and representatives of American expert organizations and commercial companies are eager to help us achieve our goal. As one would expect, these companies have a vested interest: by utilizing the colossal potential of Ukrainian nuclear energy and working with Energoatom within mutually beneficial contracts, they aim to develop the European electricity market in general.
There is no need to seek out the latest example: On September 30, 2020,on Bankova Street at the Presidential Office of Ukraine and with the president in attendance, Energoatom and Westinghouse signed another contract on the supply of VVER-440 nuclear fuel for the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant. We are planning to launch the stage of a trial run of American nuclear fuel for this type of reactor (there are 2 of them out of 15 in Ukraine) in 2024.
I am confident that this contract is the last step on the path of ultimate diversification of the nuclear fuel supply sources for Ukraine. It is beneficial not only for us, but also for Westinghouse, with its managers openly admitting to it. It will provide the American company with the conditions to develop the European nuclear fuel market for the VVER-440 in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Finland. That being said, Westinghouse chose Ukraine to be the flagship for the company’s development of the East European market.
The relationship history between Ukraine and Westinghouse is nearly three decades long – from the first visit of the company’s specialists to Khmelnytskiy NPP in 1992. July 1, 1998 became a historical date, as on that day the Memorandum on Provision of Assistance to Ukraine in Qualification of Nuclear Fuel Supplier for the Ukrainian NPPs was signed in the building of the Fuel and Energy Ministry on Khreshchatyk Street.
On that day, the Ukrainian nuclear industry set off on a difficult, two-decade long path. Today, having successfully reached its final point, the nuclear industry officials can say boldly that Ukraine is the only country in the world so far that has managed to diversify nuclear fuel suppliers for VVER-1000 reactors.
Without any fanfare and orchestra
At the end of the 1990s, the United States Department of Energy launched the International Nuclear Safety Program. Specialists of Westinghouse were involved in the process from the very beginning, and now, thanks to them, all Ukrainian NPPs have training simulators, safety operator support systems, but, most importantly – Ukraine Nuclear Fuel Qualification Project. The U.S. government has allocated over $70 million for the project’s implementation.
The project aimed at ensuring the compatibility of Westinghouse nuclear fuel assemblies with fuel assemblies manufactured by the Russian company TVEL with a mixed load of the active zones of the VVER-100 was completed by 2000. The third power unit of the South-Ukraine NPP was chosen for the trial run.
In 2004, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, acting on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy, began supplying trial fuel assemblies manufactured by Westinghouse to power unit No. 3 of the South-Ukraine NPP. “Without fanfare, an orchestra or flowers, in an ordinary manner, the containers with six American fuel assemblies were delivered to the South-Ukraine NPP,” recalls Heorhiy Raspopin, a former engineer of an international project by Ukraine and USA on nuclear fuel diversification. He was the head of the Nuclear Fuel and Radioactive Treatment Department at NNEGC Energoatom in the period of 2003-2011.
“We loaded the active zone,” says Raspopin. “And immediately, the media exploded with so-called ‘professional’ comments from the ‘experts’, who led discussions about the of an ‘inevitable Chornobyl’ close to Europe, which was not surprising, as TVEL categorically refused to give up its monopoly in the Ukrainian nuclear fuel market.”
Nonetheless, the specialists managed to substantiate the compatibility of the American assemblies with the Russian ones, and the first six were loaded into the active zones together with those of TVEL, where they went through a test run from 2005 until 2010. Today, 746 nuclear fuel assemblies manufactured by Westinghouse are operated in the active zones of six power units of the Ukrainian nuclear power plants. Seven more shipments of the American nuclear fuel are expected in 2021.
A year ago, the “trial” power unit No. 3 of the SU NPP obtained a license from the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine for permanent industrial use of Westinghouse fuel. As of today, three power units – No. 2 and 3 at the SU NPP and No. 5 of the Zaporizhia NPP operate exclusively on the American fuel. Another three – No. 1, 3 and 4 of ZNPP are loaded simultaneously with the assemblies manufactured by TVEL and Westinghouse.
“When we started this project,” Raspopin recalls, “an American colleague asked me why Ukraine needed it. I had a standard answer – we need to diversify nuclear fuel supplies. However, he corrected me – not to diversify, but to create possibilities, including the possibility of choice. That is the main condition of freedom.”
To be continued
This story could be considered a story with a happy ending, but it is still continuing. Atomenergromash, a separate subdivision of Energoatom, is using its own capacities to manufacture components for all types of Westinghouse fuels. This was also discussed on September 30, with the President of Ukraine, and an additional protocol of intent was signed.
At the same time, USA’s Holtec International together with Energoatom are finally completing a large scale project – Ukraine signed a contract with Holtec International on the development, licensing, construction and commissioning of the Central Spent Fuel Storage Facility (CSFSF) 15 years ago. The construction will be completed by the end of the year. As a reminder, Holtec developed a double-barrier technology for dry spent fuel storage specifically for Ukraine.
Our partnership with this company is just as successful: Holtec specialists tested the technology developed for the CSFSF in the USA, Spain and the UK, and are currently implementing similar projects in Switzerland and China. The important factor is that the Holtec technology received the license of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Also, in the process of preparing for the construction of the CSFSF, the Ukrainian specialists together with their colleagues from Argonne National Laboratory completed the extremely complex task of harmonization of the regulatory framework of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine with the regulatory framework of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Furthermore, in the process of harmonization, the regulations that were stricter were chosen from each piece of legislation. That is why, there is no doubt that the storage facility has been built in compliance with the toughest requirements of the nuclear laws of both countries.
