Ukraine starts a nuclear war
In 2018, Rosatom may lose at least half of the Ukrainian fuel market for nuclear power plants, since Kyiv intends to purchase most of the volumes from Westinghouse, пишет Kommersant.
Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at Telegram, Facebook, Classmates or In contact with
As stated by the head of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy of Ukraine, Igor Nasalik, if the Russians now supply Ukraine with 60% of fuel, and 40% - Westinghouse, then in 2018 the proportion will change to 55 to 45 in favor of the Americans. This will mean that TVEL will lose its status as a key supplier in Ukraine for the first time in its history.
But at the same time, TVEL has had a long-term contract with NNEGC Energoatom since 2010, under which Ukraine purchases fuel for at least 12 of 15 reactors, with volumes and schedules approved annually.
Rosatom declined to comment officially, but the publication’s source at TVEL JSC confirmed that, under the terms of the contract, the company provides fuel supplies “to all nuclear power plants in Ukraine until the end of their operating life.”
“The only way to reduce supply volumes is to violate contractual obligations with all the ensuing consequences. Will the Ukrainian side agree to this?” the newspaper’s interlocutor said.
At the same time, he actually confirmed that the volume of exports to Ukraine will again be reduced, citing information from NAEC. According to the source, the decrease in purchases “is due to a decrease in nuclear power plant output, the use of fuel reserves and dispatch restrictions.” Kommersant’s interlocutor refused to talk about what consequences could arise from a breach of contract and whether this could lead to recourse to court or international arbitration.
In turn, a source close to the Ukrainian Energoatom recognized the prospects for litigation as quite real, but believes that the dispute needs to be transferred to the political plane of Ukraine’s general claims to the Russian Federation.
“As a result, it will become an element of a global Ukrainian claim against Russia, which will also unite Kyiv’s claims from the loss of property and infrastructure in Crimea and Donbass,” said the source at Energoatom.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.