Westinghouse and Zelensky are going to build nuclear units in Ukraine - experts are at a loss
SE NNEGC Energoatom and Westinghouse Electric signed a memorandum on the construction of a power unit at the Khmelnitsky NPP.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky announced this on Twitter, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“I welcome the signing of a memorandum between the State Enterprise NNEGC Energoatom and Westinghouse Electric on the joint construction of a power unit of the Khmelnitsky NPP as a pilot project, and in the future - 4 more units using their technology. The total cost of the project is up to $30 billion,” wrote Vladimir Zelensky during his visit to the United States.
According to the co-chairman of the Energy Strategies Fund, Dmitry Marunich, we can talk about the construction of a new unit, and not about the completion of power units No. 3 and No. 4 of the Khmelnytsky Nuclear Power Plant, which is constantly written about by the media and representatives of Energoatom.
He noted that the construction readiness of the unfinished KhNPP units is low.
“If we are talking about installing a non-Soviet design reactor there, then it is unlikely to be done. The question is how to fit the reactor into an existing structure, in the construction of which huge sums have already been invested,” he said.
Previously, Energoatom entered into a memorandum with the Skoda company, which produces Soviet-design reactors, and within the framework of this agreement it would indeed be possible to complete the units.
“If we are talking about the construction of a block of American design, then we have neither specialists who can service such blocks, nor equipment, nor anything for their construction. For Soviet-design blocks, at least we have specialists, we have a base, we have a large number of contractors who produce various types of equipment. All this can be applied in blocks of Soviet design. Therefore, I can assume that we are talking about the construction of some new block,” he said.
Not long ago, Energoatom and Westinghouse discussed cooperation on the construction of new nuclear power units in Ukraine using AP1000 technology, and it is likely that these are the units we are talking about. According to Dmitry Marunich, this is less important than the completion of existing blocks.
“For Ukraine, the current issues are setting up blocks on structures that were built back in the nineties. While it is difficult to give any assessments, let’s wait for the publication of the memorandum so that it becomes clear what they are going to build at all,” the expert noted.
Westinghouse made its first attempt to enter the Ukrainian nuclear fuel market under Viktor Yushchenko. In 2008, a contract was signed with the company for the supply of at least 630 fuel assemblies during 2011-2015 for the gradual replacement of Russian fuel at at least three power units of the South Ukrainian NPP with VVER-1000. Westinghouse fuel supplies to Ukraine began in 2011. On December 30, 2014, an additional agreement was signed with Westinghouse to increase the volume of nuclear fuel supplies to Ukrainian nuclear power plants. This agreement was extended in 2018. The agreement provides for the supply of nuclear fuel to supply seven of the 15 Ukrainian nuclear units.
Westinghouse has not previously announced plans to build nuclear units at Ukrainian nuclear power plants.
In turn, the chief editor of the analytical portal RuBaltic.Ru, Alexander Nosovich, called this deal the scam of the century and raised several serious questions.
“The Ukrainian side signed a memorandum with the American company Westinghouse Electric providing for the construction of a power unit at the Khmelnytsky NPP using its technology and subsequently 4 more units worth up to $30 billion. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who is on a visit to the United States, announced this on Tuesday.
This “deal of the century” looks like the scam of the century. Our Lithuanian patients and I have long become experts on peaceful atoms, and we cannot help but have questions.
1. Why does Ukraine need as many as 4 (!) extra power units during deindustrialization and depopulation - a critical reduction in individuals and enterprises consuming electricity?
2. The Khmelnytsky NPP was built by the Soviet Union, maintained by Rosatom... and will the Americans build new power units? But that’s not possible! We know this from the experience of the Lithuanian Ignalinka: whoever built the nuclear power plant maintains it. Otherwise – “the second Chernobyl”. This is also why Lithuania closed the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant. For the previous Conservative government, the termination of relations with Rosatom was the very notorious “gaining energy independence.”
3. That is, how can this become possible in practice? Stop Soviet power units and start American ones instead? And what kind of shishi? And, most importantly, why? See question 1." – wrote Nosovich.
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Now the editors are aware.