Nuclear Power Plants
Due to the Russian-backed separatist conflict in Eastern Ukraine, energy has become a high-profile political and economic issue. Because of the conflict in the east, Ukraine's coal production has fallen by about one-fifth since 2014, thereby increasing the importance of the nuclear energy sector in limiting large-scale electricity shortages. Before this conflict, Ukraine significantly relied on Russia for energy. Though it is working to diversify its energy production, currently 52 percent of the country’s electricity comes from nuclear power plants.
Ukraine operated 15 nuclear reactors at four facilities with a total installed capacity of 14,148 MW: Zaporizhzhya (6,000 MW, 6 VVER-1000 units), South-Ukraine (3,000 MW, 3 VVER-1000 units), Rivne (2,835 MW, 2 VVER-100 units and 2 VVER-440 units) and Khmelnytska (2,000 MW, 2 VVER-1000 units). Ukraine’s nuclear power utility, Energoatom, operates all of these facilities, generating 85.57 billion kWh, more than half the nation’s electrical needs. Currently, all units are Russian VVER pressurized water reactors. Rivne 1 and 2 are 440 MWe V-312 models, and the rest are larger 1,000 MWe units, V-320 models. Energoatom's current priorities are to increase safety, bring load factors up to 83-85 percent, and extend the working lives of the reactors by 10-15 years, at a cost of around $150 million per VVER-1000 reactor.
The remaining operational reactor, Chornobyl Unit 3, is an RBMK reactor. The Chornobyl Unit 4 accident in 1986 focused international attention on the safety of Soviet-designed reactors, particularly the RBMK design (more on Chornobyl accident). The G-7 nations and the European Union are working with Ukraine under a Memorandum of Understanding to close the Chornobyl plant by 2000. At Chornobyl, DOE is involved in projects to upgrade equipment and safety procedures at operating Unit 3, and in rehabilitating and making the working conditions safer in the Shelter, which contains the destroyed Unit 4. DOE also provides support for the development of the International Chornobyl Center for Nuclear Safety, Radioactive Waste and Radioecology.
Other international assistance has included IAEA training seminars; an NRC working group; the Lisbon Initiative involving U.S., Russian, and Ukrainian scientists, and Hungarian assistance in upgrading safety procedures. Joint ventures with France, Germany, Russia, and U.S. companies and governments have also been signed, primarily for upgrading equipment and safety procedures.
In late 1993, Ukraine signed an agreement with the U.S. government to cover nuclear safety assistance activities and provision of liability protection. As stated in the agreement, Ukraine will shield U.S. companies providing safety assistance from liability for future accidents. Also, on September 20, 1996, Ukraine deposited its instrument of accession to become a signatory of the Vienna Convention, which came into force for Ukraine on December 20, 1996.
The reliability of Ukrainian plants is influenced by the differences between the VVER-1000 and VVER-440/213 reactors. "Despite the fact that units with VVER-1000 reactors are more modern and, in terms of formal design characteristics, better satisfy generally accepted safety principles and criteria," notes the Ukrainian Ministry of Environmental Safety, "the quality of the design and its practical implementation have turned out to be inadequate and inferior to the older VVER-440/213" (in Status Report: Nuclear and Radiation Safety in Ukraine, 1994, Ukraine Ministry of Environmental Safety). The problems with the VVER-1000s are endemic to all these reactor models throughout the countries of the former Soviet Union: problems operating localization safety systems and poor maintenance of the containment prestressing system erosion and corrosion of piping continued operation of components, systems and equipment beyond their design life defects in diesel generator control circuits, leading to failures failures of electric switches, so that safety system mechanisms fail to actuate failures in data channels in transient modes of unit operation radiation-stimulated increases in the critical brittleness temperature of the reactor vessel metal, which may result in thermal shock damage to the vessel when cold water from the emergency core cooling system enters it.
Safety was not the only issue facing the Ukrainian nuclear program in the 1990s. The lack of money is probably the primary issue, followed closely by dwindling numbers of qualified personnel. Electricity payments in Ukraine do not cover the costs of production, so the plants are owed millions of dollars by electricity consumers, especially state-owned enterprises.
To reduce the risk of complete dependence on Russia, however, in December 2014, Ukraine signed a contract with Westinghouse Electric Company to begin diversifying its nuclear fuel supply. Historically, Russia supplied 100% of fuel, but in 2017 it dropped to 60%, with 40% supplied by Westinghouse. Ukraine took an additional step towards diversification in August 2016 when it signed a supply contract for enriched uranium with the Anglo- German-Dutch company, URENCO.
Ukraine has an open fuel cycle and two storage facilities for spent fuel, one dry at the Zaporozhye plant and one wet at the Chernobyl plant. Currently, Ukraine sends its spent fuel to Russia and Energoatom pays Russia $150-200 million per annum to accept and store this spent nuclear fuel. In January 2015, Energoatom and the U.S. firm Holtec signed a contract to construct a centralized dry storage facility for spent fuel (CSFSF) in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to reduce Ukraine's reliance on Russia.
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