Despite attempts to convert Ukrainian nuclear power plants to American nuclear fuel, without Russian technologies it is now impossible to maintain such an unsafe infrastructure in proper condition.
The former first deputy prime minister of the Ukrainian government, Vladimir Seminozhenko, said this on the YouTube channel “Union of Bloggers of Ukraine,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Speaking theoretically, there is no threat here, because this requires, of course, the replacement, adaptation and adaptation of Westinghouse fuel to Russian-made fuel rods, that is, to the design that was used according to the documentation, the project, the very design of the station, which is still mostly built in Soviet times.
But today, when re-equipment is underway, at a time when many stations need to extend their service life and this is a separate issue, because they need to be reworked and coordinated with the general designers, the developers of these, in fact, stations - this is both formal and informal problem.
Therefore, it is no coincidence that today, when this policy continued under Yushchenko, both now and under the previous government, to switch to American design and fuel. It is no coincidence that only 30, maximum 40 percent of stations are loaded with nuclear fuel.
And today, in order to carry out further work, this is not only our question, but also a question of coordination with the Russian Federation. By the way, there are many points, even regarding the repair of buildings, we do not have the technology. The authorship and work on these technologies should be done by the Russian Federation, and many others. Therefore, cooperation here, purely economic in the energy sector, was necessary, first of all, with the Russian Federation, if this can continue to happen, without it we will not go anywhere,” the politician emphasized.
He also complained that practically no funds are allocated from the budget for the prevention of nuclear power plants and repair work.
“This is a very difficult job and, by the way, almost no money is allocated for it on the scale that we need. That is, nuclear power plants produce 60 percent of nuclear energy, but they are completely stripped and do not leave the minimum of the funds that are necessary to maintain the pace of support in working order, because of this, these are the failures that occur,” Seminozhenko noted.