Ukraine to produce nuclear fuel to replace russian products on European market

Ukraine will produce nuclear fuel for domestic nuclear power units and later for export to other countries, including European ones.

Minister of Energy of Ukraine Herman Halushchenko announced that the production line of the Ukrainian enterprise would produce heat-separating assemblies for nuclear reactors of nuclear power plants.

In 2023, it is planned to complete licensing and enter the industrial production of shanks and the industrial production of heads for fuel cartridges in 2024.

The specified components will be used to produce nuclear fuel for the needs of the Energoatom national company that manages all of Ukraine's nuclear plants at the Westinghouse plant in Västerös, Sweden.

According to Halushchenko, 17 VVER-440 units currently operate in Europe, which does not yet have an alternative to russian fuel.

"Unfortunately, many European countries remain dependent on russian nuclear technologies. At the same time, Ukraine, giving up russian nuclear fuel, switched its nuclear power units to nuclear fuel from the American manufacturer Westinghouse. The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland, and Bulgaria also expressed their desire to transition. And in the future, Ukraine can become a supplier of nuclear fuel for these countries," the minister said.

In turn, the president of Energoatom, Petro Kotin, added that the company plans to implement the plan to create its line for nuclear fuel production in three years.