Minister of Energy of Ukraine Herman Halushchenko held a meeting with Deputy Director-General for Energy at the European Commission Massimo Garribba within the framework of the 67th session of the IAEA General Conference. President of SE "NNEGC "Energoatom" Petro Kotin attended the event as well.
Herman Halushchenko stressed that the situation around the russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya NPP is quite tense and poses a potential threat to the nuclear security not only of Ukraine, but also of the entire European continent. He stated that currently there is almost no international experience and protocols for restoring the operation of nuclear power plants after armed conflicts, therefore the situation at the ZNPP is unique and requires special attention.
Minister of Energy expressed concern that the russians could create conditions that would lead to a nuclear incident even after the ZNPP deoccupation. In order to prevent that from happening, it is important to organize an international mission that will check the situation at the facility and make sure it is safe to return to operation.
Herman Halushchenko also emphasized that russia creates additional nuclear threats to the world by shelling Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities that provide electricity to other nuclear plants.
The representatives of the Ukrainian delegation noted that our country had shown other Eastern European states an example of overcoming dependence on russian nuclear fuel for VVER-1000 and VVER-440 reactors.
Energoatom’s President Petro Kotin reminded the meeting participants that the first batch of nuclear fuel manufactured by Westinghouse Electric Sweden AB company featuring professionals of SE "NNEGC "Energoatom" was recently loaded into Rivne NPP VVER-440 reactor.
"The work on the development and loading of nuclear fuel into the VVER-440 reactor was completed 1.5 years ahead of schedule. This event not only plays a key role in strengthening the energy independence and security of Ukraine but also ends russia's monopoly on the nuclear technology market," he said.
Furthermore, Petro Kotin said that Energoatom is working on implementing in-house production of components for nuclear fuel using Westinghouse technology. Moreover, in the future, the Company will be able to export these technologies for similar NPP power units in European countries.
According to the meeting results, the parties agreed to coordinate efforts to refuse other goods, equipment and services provided by the companies of the russian nuclear complex.
