Please find below the second part of the column of President of SE «NNEGC «Energoatom» Petro Kotin for the online media outlet «Economichna Pravda» («Economic truth») about the destruction of russia's monopoly in nuclear fuel manufacture.
russia's predatory war against Ukraine pinpointed the issue of diversification of nuclear fuel supply for countries with nuclear power. The world already has the experience of refusal of russian oil and gas, while nuclear fuel for nuclear power plants is the next step. And Ukraine became the first in this process.
In the very first days of the russian full-fledged invasion, Energoatom ceased all cooperation with rosatom. But even before the start of the war, the Energoatom team took an irreversible course to completely refuse the supply of nuclear fuel from the aggressor country.
Therefore, Ukraine became the first and, unfortunately, so far the only country in the world to convert power units of Soviet design (both VVER-1000 and VVER-440) to nuclear fuel manufactured by Westinghouse.
If other European countries switch to the already tested fuel for reactors of the VVER-440 type, russia will lose at least USD 2 to 2.5 bln in revenue over the next 5 years.
The next stage of the russian monopoly destruction is setting up the production of fuel assemblies’ components, namely, top and bottom nozzles. Due to its in-house production, since 2026, Ukraine will be able to provide itself with its own nuclear fuel by 50%. Westinghouse will cover the other half.
In-house nuclear fuel manufacture is much more profitable than its importing. Moreover, it’s not just the price that matters.
Among the advantages are:
To be continued.
