During a working visit to the Khmelnytsky NPP site, the head of Energoatom Petro Kotin and Chief Executive Officer of Westinghouse Electric Company Patrick Fragman visited the fresh fuel facility, where the fuel assemblies supplied by the American company were stored.
The KhNPP became the last national nuclear power plant to which American nuclear fuel had been delivered.
«Mr. Patrick Fragman and I have inspected the fresh fuel. The KhNPP is our last plant that received Westinghouse fuel. Our company is very satisfied with operating experience, its reliability, and we continue fruitful cooperation with Westinghouse. All supply logistics are reliably provided and are on schedule,» Petro Kotin said.
The head of Energoatom reminded that Westinghouse, together with Ukrainian specialists, had manufactured fuel for the VVER-440 reactors in record period as well. He also added that joint work on the development of the fuel manufacture line was going on: «We will have two sources of fuel supply for our reactors: either American or Ukrainian manufactured using Westinghouse technology.»
Patrick Fragman emphasized that both companies had been working on localization of fuel production in Ukraine for several years.
«This is an attractive project that I look at with optimism. I draw your attention to the fact that Ukraine is a country with a very strong culture of nuclear safety, powerful nuclear industry, and an influential and active operator, NNEGC «Energoatom». This is a country with mostly public acceptance of nuclear energy as the basis of energy security,» the head of Westinghouse stressed.
He also emphasized that the successful future of nuclear power industry in Ukraine could have an impact not only on Ukraine itself, but also on neighboring countries: in the EU, in particular, there would be a huge need for clean electricity, so the integration of Ukraine into the European system had a huge potential, in view of the direct export of electricity as well as Ukrainian nuclear technologies.
