You're reading: US moves in on Russia’s nuclear energy turf in Ukraine

Ukraine’s energy dependence on Russia subsided yet again this month when state-owned nuclear power company Energoatom on April 11 concluded a deal with America’s Westinghouse to supply fuel rods until 2020. The agreement came more than two weeks before Ukraine signed a memorandum with Slovakia for the supply of up to 8 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year to replace Russian blue fuel imports. The deal also comes on the heels of a scandal involving dented rods, competing interests and conflicting evidence.

Russia has been the long-time monopoly supplier of nuclear fuel to Ukraine where roughly half the electricity is generated by nuclear power plants. TVEL, the Russian supplier, saw a challenger in 2011, when Westinghouse Electric Company was contracted by Energoatom to provide fuel to three of the country’s 15 reactors over five years in a deal experts say was worth over $100 million.

The Southern Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant (SUNPP) was using the Westinghouse TVS-W type fuel rod in tandem with Russian TVEL rods. However, according to Westinghouse, as reported by Kyiv Post on July 4, 2013, the Russian rods damaged the American ones during operations because the Russian rods’ “fuel bow” exceeded the technical norm. In other words, they were moving around too much and would repeatedly strike the neighboring American rods.

After a flurry of accusations, Westinghouse agreed to modify their rods for Ukrainian use, so that by April 4 the company could announce that it should resume the Energoatom contract. In early May, Westinghouse plans to complete the entire cycle test of modified TVS-W rods, followed by Energoatom tests.  Today, SUNPP uses 66 Westinghouse TVS-W type nuclear fuel rods and 97 Russian TVEL rods.

As per the amended contract, in December 2014-January 2015 during scheduled maintenance the first batch of the modified rods will be loaded into the third unit of the SUNPP for a test period to collect data for approval by the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate. If all goes well, the rods can then enter regular usage.

According to Forbes, in April 2012, after all rods were removed from an SUNPP reactor following a scheduled period of use, plant technicians discovered that in fact both the American and Russian rods had suffered dents and scratches to their containment structures, which threatened the integrity of the radioactive material inside. Nevertheless, the chief inspector of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate Michael Gashev recommended to an Energoatom commission that it only forbid the use of American rods.

However, no documents relating to restrictions on the use of Westinghouse fuel were ever accepted, leaving the door open for the Americans to return. In 2012, the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate decided to continue the trial operation with Westinghouse, asking only for a “fresh makeup before the completion of its construction,” meaning that the American assembly must be loaded immediately with Russian, according to Forbes.

Interestingly, TVEL and Ukrainian state enterprise Nuclear Fuel continue cooperation on constructing a nuclear fuel plant in Kirovograd Oblast. The Russian company is the major shareholder in the process. The main stage of the construction process is scheduled for the second quarter of 2013.

Furthermore, Russia’s nuclear energy giant Rosatom is interested in privatizing Turboatom, a highly profitable Kharkiv-based producer of turbines for nuclear power plants. Privatization was expected to happen this year, though it was postponed due to political instability in the country and thus far remains unclear.

There is an ongoing discussion in Ukraine as well as globally about the future of nuclear energy after the 1986 Chornobyl and 2011 Fukushima accidents. Switzerland has already announced its intention to shut down all its nuclear stations by 2019. However, it is not the issue for Ukraine so far as even local Chornobyl veterans support the nuclear energy production. Green energy could be even more dangerous because of the problems with recycling used equipment for sun power stations, said Union Chornobyl Ukraina president Yuriy Andreyev at an April 25 roundtable devoted to the issue.

Kyiv Post business journalist Evan Ostryzniuk can be reached at [email protected].