Russian-Ukrainian engineering venture planned
Ukraine's national electricity generator Energoatom has agreed to establish a consortium to locally produce equipment for Ukrainian nuclear power plants with AtomEnergoMash (AEM) - part of the Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom.
The agreement was reached today in Moscow during a meeting of the Russian-Ukrainian working group on cooperation in nuclear engineering, Atomenergomash announced. The meeting was attended by Vladimir Kashchenko, director general of AEM, and Vladimir Pyshniy, Energoatom's vice president for maintenance and plant equipment.
During the meeting, the working group discussed a query by Ukrainian power engineering companies as to their participation in the local manufacture of equipment for the completion of units 3 and 4 of the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant, as well as further joint projects in Ukraine.
The working group agreed to establish the new consortium, which would be responsible for establishing domestic production of nuclear power plant equipment, including for the Khmelnitsky project. The final documents for setting up the consortium are set to be signed at the next meeting of the working group, scheduled for later this month.
In June, Russia and Ukraine signed an intergovernmental agreement on the resumption of work on the two partially built reactors at Khmelnitsky. Russia is to provide financing for the amount required to design, construct and commission the two reactors, including for payments for services and goods supplied by Russia. Any components supplied from Ukraine for the project would be financed from the Ukrainian budget.
Construction of Khmelnitsky 3 began in September 1985, while that of unit 4 started in June 1986. Work on the two units stopped in 1990 when they were 75% and 28% complete, respectively.
The Ukrainian government envisages finalizing the project in 2011 and approving the design for the new units in 2011. Construction of unit 3 should be completed in 2014 and the reactor should be commissioned in 2015. Unit 4 is expected to be completed in 2015 and commissioned the following years. Russia's AtomStroyExport won a tender in 2008 to construct two AES-92 plants with V-392B reactors at Khmelnitsky, similar to the two VVERs already operating on the site.
In June 2007, Russia and Ukraine signed a protocol of intent on cooperation between their respective nuclear power companies. Under that agreement, the nuclear energy agencies of the two countries were to develop cooperation in providing scientific and technical support to the nuclear energy industry, increasing the safety and extending the service life of nuclear reactors, designing and constructing new nuclear power plants, developing nuclear fuel cycle enterprises, and seeking joint access to third-party markets. Russia and Ukraine were also to consider establishing joint ventures to mine and enrich uranium and fabricate nuclear fuel in both countries.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News
