MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Russian diplomat added that Ukrainian authorities decided to be guided not technical and economic considerations, but by political guidelines that clearly run counter to the interests of the country.
"This is a decision Kiev bears responsibility for. Essentially, it willingly transforms itself into a testing ground for experimental US fuel assemblies. One can only express regret over the fact that Kiev authorities decided to be guided not by technical and economic considerations, but by political guidelines that clearly run counter to the interests of Ukraine and its people," Mikhail Ulyanov told RIA Novosti.
"As we have repeatedly stressed, justified doubts remain as of today that foreign producers, including Westinghouse, will be able to create fuel that would work on Soviet or Russian reactors without incidents. Previous attempts to load our reactors with non-Russian nuclear fuel, including at Ukrainian nuclear power plants, have repeatedly led to extraordinary situations," Mikhail Ulyanov told RIA Novosti.
"Moreover, we are also concerned about attempts that started in 2016 to move Ukrainian nuclear power plants to forced power regulation mode, allowing for the possibility of a substantial daily power output decrease. This is quite unsafe in itself. Combined with a possible presence of foreign experimental fuel in their active zones, the risk of nuclear incidents further increases," he added.
