The State Committee on Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine (SCNRU) and Rostekhnadzor will cooperate on the project to build Khmelnitsky unit 3 and unit 4, according to Yelena Mikolaychuk, chairwoman of SCNRU. The units will use Russian VVER-1000 (V392) technology.
This week SCNRU is meeting with the Russian regulator at the VVER Regulators Forum to discuss potential cooperation. Regulators from countries operating VVER-type reactors, including Russia, Armenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, China, Slovakia, Ukraine, Finland and the Czech Republic are members of the forum which meets once a year.
Mikolaychuk said that Russia had excellent achievements in the field of nuclear fuel fabrication and one of the goals of her visit is familiarization with the production of the nuclear fuel used by Ukrainian nuclear power plants.
Mikolaychuk added: “In 2005 we licensed the last modification – TVS-A. But Russia has already developed new modifications and we would like to see what progress has been made and if this fuel can be used in Ukraine. The energy strategy of Ukraine envisages the construction of an own nuclear fuel production plant. TVEL is one of the potential partners and we are already negotiating with that company.”
Previously, TVEL OJSC (TVEL) said that Russia was interested in creating an alternative producer and supplier of nuclear fuel for VVER reactors abroad and Ukraine was one of the priority partners under the project.
TVEL believes that Ukraine meets the three basic criteria for having own production of nuclear fuel: sufficient number of VVER reactors; equidistance from sales markets; and the aspiration to use Russian technologies in the future.
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