The US is ready to assist Ukraine in guaranteeing its energy security and the stability of the supply of energy resources, in particular for the nuclear energy sector, assured the US Chargé d’Affaires in Ukraine Christina Quinn at a meeting with the Minister of Energy of Ukraine Herman Galushchenko.
According to the announcement of the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine on the website on Tuesday, during the meeting, the issues of Ukraine’s sustainable passage of the heating season in the conditions of energy aggression from Russia, which consists in the blockade of coal supply by railway tracks, as well as a significant reduction in the volume of transit of Russian gas through Ukraine, were discussed.
The parties discussed cooperation in the field of ensuring reliable and uninterrupted operation of the NPP during the 2021-2022 OZP, in particular, technical support and stable replenishment of fuel reserves in the context of the increased load on the Energoatom NPP.
As reported, at the beginning of November, Galushchenko stated that Ukraine has fuel reserves at nuclear power plants designed for one and a half years of operation. According to him, there is 146% of annual demand for VVER-1000 units and 150% for VVER-440.
Galushchenko noted that, by creating obstacles regarding the supply of fuel resources, the Russian Federation has the opportunity to influence the restrictions on the supply of nuclear fuel, since half of the NPP units operate on Russian fuel. At the same time, given the available reserves, the head of the Ministry of Energy assured that such restrictions, if there are any, will not affect the operation of the NPP.
At the end of November 2021, Energoatom fully loaded four of the six power units of the Zaporizhzhia NPP with nuclear fuel from the American Westinghouse after the completion of planned preventive maintenance (PPR) of unit No. 4.
As noted in “Energoatom”, thus far Westinghouse fuel for VVER-1000 reactors is already used in six out of 15 power units of Ukrainian nuclear power plants, 13 of which are equipped with VVER-1000 reactors. By the end of 2021, it was planned that the volume of fuel supply would increase to seven consignments of overloading annually: four – for the Zaporizhzhya NPP, two – for the Yuzhno-Ukrainian NPP, and one – for the Rivne NPP.
