Ukraine is expanding its nuclear energy with the support of America

According to the international group Tasnim news agency, the German newspaper Tagus Zeitung wrote in an article: Ukraine wants to greatly expand its nuclear power. The American companies Heltech and Westinghouse are going to support Ukraine as a partner in this regard.

Last week, Petro Kotin, the head of the Ukrainian nuclear company Energoatom, and Chris Singh, the head of the operator of the Heltech nuclear power plant, signed an agreement. They signed to transfer the company’s technology to produce components for “small modular reactors” in Ukraine.

An example of a small nuclear power plant is the floating nuclear power plant “Akademik Lomonosov”, which from May 2020 has electricity and It provides heat for the Siberian port city of Puk and its nearby mines. Additionally, in the deal, Energoatom and Hotalk agreed to build a Ukrainian manufacturing facility for components of dry storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel. America was also present at the signing ceremony of this agreement in Kiev. Energoatom announced the agreement on its Telegram channel, which will stimulate the post-war economy, create jobs, become a regional technology center for SMR-300 and Holtec spent fuel technologies. Ukraine is on its way to becoming a “nuclear technology center for all of Europe,” the company announced.

Last September, Ukraine built its first nuclear power plant with Westinghouse fuel rods. which is jointly produced by Energoatom and this American company. Also last week, construction began on two nuclear reactors in the small Ukrainian town of Netishin near Khmelnytskyi.

These reactors will be Ukraine’s first nuclear reactors built using US technology. The strategic partner of the operator of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant Energoatom in the construction of these reactors is the American company Westinghouse. The company’s desire for long-term cooperation was emphasized by the presence of Patrick Frogman, CEO of Westinghouse Electric, and Bridget Brink, the United States Ambassador to Ukraine, at the ceremony to start its construction.

Patrick Frogman, CEO of Westinghouse said in his speech: All nuclear power plants of Ukraine have already been freed from dependence on Russian fuel rods. Brink, the ambassador of the United States of America, also explained that this American company wants to build a total of 9 nuclear reactors in Ukraine. Two of them are also planned to be built in Khmelnitsky. Complementing the four other planned reactors with six reactors, the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant will be the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.

However, these two reactors are highly controversial because they are a new nuclear power plant They are not, but they are the continuation of the structural measures that started in 1986 and 1987. In an article for censor.net, Olga Kosharna, a nuclear expert and member of the Expert Council of the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine, expressed doubts about whether a modern nuclear reactor would fit in a housing designed in the 1980s.

However, these days Kotin, the head of Energoatom, is a special guest at the American company Hotalk. In his speech to the Board of Advisors last week, Kutin congratulated his board on the US government’s recent decision to grant Holtec a $1.5 billion loan to restart the Palisades nuclear power plant in the US state of Michigan.

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