By Vestnik Kavkaza
Kiev has permitted imports of modernized nuclear fuel of the American company Westinghouse to Ukrainian nuclear power plants. In December it will be imported to the South Ukrainian NPP and in late December or early January it will be loaded to the third unit of the plant. Commenting on the situation to ITAR-TASS, the senior expert of the Institute for Energy and Finances, Sergey Kondratyev, said that the Ukraine’s decision doesn’t consider the technological peculiarities of Soviet-type plants and is very risky. The expert recalls problems with use of American fuel in Soviet-type reactors which are situated in Ukraine and the Czech Republic.
Meanwhile, from the point of view of protection from terrorists penetrating a Ukrainian NPP and storage of A-waste, there are no problems in Ukraine.
The deputy Director General of the IAEA, Alexander Bychkov, says that despite the traditionally negative attitude to A-waste, at the moment it is not a problem: “Today there is no problem of A-waste. There are several engineering solutions which are well-developed and scientifically justified. Within the framework of the General Conference which took place last week at the IAEA we discussed questions about the technologies of A-waste. We tried to show the diplomats and experts who participated in the General Conference that today A-waste is not a problem, but a set of solutions which can be used in all countries, by any company, to protect the population and biosphere from A-waste.”
Alexander Bychkov thinks that, despite the events in the southeast of Ukraine, nothing threatens the nuclear facilities on the territory of the country: “Ukraine is one of leading countries which use nuclear power plants. Qualification and the nuclear power control and management system are one of the best in the world in Ukraine. The IAEA regularly assesses the security of plants. The agency has no questions for Ukraine, from the point of view of nuclear power security. The nearest plant to the dangerous area is the Zaporozhskaya Plant. According to our data, all Ukrainian plants are well protected from terrorists and illegal penetrations.”
