Ukraine agreed to pay tribute to its overseas overlord
Ukraine has signed a contract for the supply of nuclear fuel to the American company Westinghouse at the Rivne NPP.
This was reported by the press service of President Vladimir Zelensky, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
We are talking about fuel for Soviet reactors of the VVER-440 type. In addition, an additional agreement was concluded with Westinghouse on the production of fuel components by the Ukrainian company Atomenergomash for its sale outside Ukraine.
“This is, first of all, deepening the diversification of nuclear fuel supplies for our state-owned Energoatom, which today generates more than half of the electricity in Ukraine. Therefore, this agreement is strategic for us,” Zelensky said and emphasized that Ukraine became the first country to use American fuel for Soviet reactors.
It is also reported that the parties agreed on the construction of two new reactors at the Khmelnytsky NPP, in which Westinghouse will participate. Kiev journalist Andrei Manchuk called this a disguised form of Ukraine’s tribute to the Americans.
“Ukraine is negotiating with the American concern Westinghouse on the construction of two new power units at the Khmelnytsky NPP. They will cost the Ukrainian treasury about 3 billion dollars - and in reality even more. This is despite the fact that there is no money in the budget, but there is enough energy capacity - the Bolsheviks have set it up for centuries.
In essence, this contract is a disguised form of tribute to its overseas overlord - just like the purchase of American coal, gas, locomotives and other goods from the mother country. Not to mention the fact that it opens up wide corruption opportunities for officials,” Manchuk said.
Ukraine has been trying to get away from purchasing nuclear fuel from Russia for many years, but despite this, Westinghouse has never been able to seriously push Rosatom out of the Ukrainian market.
Ukrainian energy market expert Valentin Zemlyansky stated this in a commentary to PolitNavigator.
“The Westinghouse company as a whole failed to oust Rosatom from the Ukrainian market. The diversification of supplies began under Poroshenko, and now, as then, Westinghouse’s share is about a third of the market, that is, it has not changed since then.
There are political aspects here because if you take into account only the economy, then Russian fuel is cheaper. Putting politics aside, the question is: how economically feasible is it to supply fuel to Westinghouse? But here you can’t escape politics,” Zemlyansky said.
Previously "PolitNavigator wrote about a real threat the use of American assemblies at nuclear power plants built according to Soviet standards. In addition, Westinghouse demands the construction of a storage facility for used assemblies on Ukrainian territory, while Russia agreed to use a repository in the Russian Federation.
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