The Minister of Energy of Ukraine Herman Galushchenko declares that his country will produce nuclear fuel to replace Russian fuel on the European Union market, writes Ukrinform.

As reported by the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine, German Galushchenko visited the enterprise where nuclear fuel will be produced for the country’s nuclear power plant, and then for export to other countries.

The cited source showed that 17 VVER-440 units are operating in Europe, which currently have no alternative to Russian fuel. For its part, Ukraine has already started production of components for VVER-1000 fuel units and will soon start production of fuel for VVER-440 units. The project is being implemented by Energoatom NAEC together with the American company Westinghouse.

“Unfortunately, many European countries remain dependent on Russian nuclear technologies. At the same time, after abandoning Russian nuclear fuel, Ukraine transferred nuclear power units to the nuclear fuel of the American producer Westinghouse. In turn, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland and Bulgaria expressed their desire to make such a transition. And in the future, Ukraine can become a supplier of nuclear fuel for these countries,” Galushchenko said.

Petro Kotin, President of Energoatom NAEC, added that Energoatom wants to implement the plan to create its own nuclear fuel production line within three years.

“Ukraine is a world leader in the field of nuclear energy. And today, our specialists, together with American partners, are working to remove Russia from the international market of nuclear technologies,” Galushchenko noted.

Seven power units of Ukrainian nuclear power plants, the sole operator of which is Energoatom NPP, have been completely switched to fuel by Westinghouse Electric Sweden AB, which is a long-time partner of the company. From 2024, all 15 units of Ukrainian nuclear power plants should be supplied with this fuel.