Ukraine Plans to Use Westinghouse Fuel in 40% of NPP Units

Kiev mulls increasing the share of US nuclear fuel to the level of 40 percent.

KIEV (Sputnik) — Ukraine is considering the possibility of using the US Westinghouse company's nuclear fuel in 40 percent of its nuclear power plants’ units, Ukraine’s minister of energy and coal industry said on Friday.

"Currently we are considering a program under which 40 percent of nuclear power units of Ukraine would work on Westinghouse nuclear fuel," Igor Nasalik told Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada.

In August, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Kistion in an interview with newspaper Voice of Ukraine said that Russia was supplying 85 percent of fuel for Ukrainian nuclear power plants, while the remaining 15 percent were supplied by US Westinghouse.

In 2014, Westinghouse agreed to supply nuclear fuel to several units of Ukrainian nuclear power plants until 2020. This was explained by a necessity to ensure Ukraine's energy independence from Russia. Later, Westinghouse announced its readiness to become the exclusive supplier of fuel for Ukrainian nuclear power plants. Experts have repeatedly warned that it would be dangerous to use US-made fuel in reactors of Soviet and Russian design for technical reasons.