The Kremlin can paralyze the work of Ukrainian nuclear power plants, - Kiev expert
Kyiv, April 08 (Navigator, Evgeny Andreev) – Moscow is able to halve electricity production in Ukraine by stopping the export of Russian nuclear fuel.
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Former Presidential Commissioner for International Energy Security Bogdan Sokolovsky writes about this in the newspaper “Young Ukraine”.
“Today, 15 reactors are operating in Ukraine, and all of them are supplied with nuclear fuel from the Russian Federation,” he recalls.
True, Sokolovsky notes, at two of them, for more than 6 years, the so-called adaptation of nuclear fuel from the Westinghouse company (Sweden, USA and Japan) has been carried out along with native, Russian fuel.
“No one has yet worked with other VVER-1000 reactors. Therefore, talking about replacing fuel with them is ridiculous. Replacing Russian nuclear fuel with Westinghouse fuel in them also requires years of experimentation. No one even remembered about the fuel for 4 VVER-440 reactors!” the expert complains.
Even a superficial generalization shows, he emphasizes, that Ukrainian nuclear energy, which produces almost 50% of its electricity, is almost entirely dependent on Russia.
“You can, of course, refuse Russian imports of nuclear fuel (after all, you cannot cooperate with an aggressor). But then you have to imagine what to do if there is a 50% shortage of electricity. It should be remembered that it can only be replaced after a few years. To be fair, it is worth noting that only two enterprises in the West can produce fuel for VVER reactors: in Sweden (the enterprise of the mentioned Westinghouse company) and in Spain. Ukraine cooperates with Westinghouse. Whereas there is no cooperation with Spain,” reflects Sokolovsky.
Consequently, the abandonment of Russian nuclear fuel will lead to a decrease in the supply of electricity in Ukraine by almost half. And this, in turn, can lead to the complete collapse of the state.
Thus, the expert warns, Ukraine urgently needs to prepare for the worst-case scenario. It should be borne in mind that it will not be possible to completely avoid losses during the year, but they can actually be mitigated with the help of the West:
“But for this purpose it is necessary: urgently to restore comfortable conditions for cooperation with the Westinghouse company (in particular, to expand activities on adapting their nuclear fuel to all nuclear power plant units); get rid of the pro-Russian 5th column in the industry; conduct constant competent explanatory work among the population and conduct active explanatory work with all countries and with owners of economic enterprises; to reconsider the issue of building a nuclear fuel plant - the tender should be re-announced,” says Bogdan Sokolovsky.
“In two to three years we can overcome these difficulties. But during this period one must be prepared to endure difficulties associated with a lack of electricity,” the expert states.
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