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A leading US nuclear fuel, equipment, and services provider may sign a long-term nuclear fuel supply contract worth tens of millions of dollars with Ukraine

of millions of dollars with Ukraine. The deal would significantly reduce Ukraine’s dependence on Russian energy suppliers.

On Jan. 9, the US-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC), which promotes American-Ukrainian business relations, announced it expects an agreement to be inked in the first quarter of 2008 between Westinghouse and Ukrainian nuclear power holding, Energoatom.

If the agreement is signed, “it would mark the first time that Ukraine will have a second supplier for approximately 50 percent of the entire nation’s power requirements,” said Rosemary Peta, communications manager of Westinghouse’s nuclear fuel business unit. The pact would entail supplying fuel to “a minimum of three reactors” beginning in 2011, she said.

Westinghouse has lobbied the Ukrainian government for fuel supply contracts for almost a decade, she said.

Meanwhile, the Energoatom press service confirmed earlier reports that the state-owned nuclear power holding and Russia’s TVEL, one of the world’s leading producers of nuclear fuel, signed an agreement to supply nuclear fuel for all 15 Ukrainian reactors in 2008.

The reactors are operated at four nuclear power sites, namely Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), South-Ukraine NPP, Rivne NPP and Khmelnytskiy NPP. TVEL has been the sole supplier of nuclear fuel for Ukrainian reactors since 1996, when it won the tender to supply fuel to all Ukrainian reactors, the Energoatom press service said.

Currently Ukrainian nuclear generators are testing fuel produced by Westinghouse. Energoatom is interested in working with the US company since diversification of fuel sources is very important, the press service added. Fuel quality and price are the big issues in the potential contract, said Volodymyr Saprykin, director of energy programs at the Kyiv-based Razumkov Center for Economic and Political Studies.

Since Russia produced nuclear fuel for Ukraine for decades and improved its quality, it’s much cheaper than what Westinghouse offers, he said, adding that such contracts are worth “tens of millions of dollars.”

However, the government may decide to buy more expensive fuel in order to improve energy security, Saprykin said.

“In my view, this contract needs to be signed, even [if fuel costs] will be higher,” he added.