Friday, 11 July 2025
Energoatom is pushing ahead with plans with Westinghouse to create a plant for the production of fuel assemblies in Ukraine, and with Holtec for manufacturing plants for small modular reactors and for storage containers for used nuclear fuel.
The agreements were signed at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Italy, and are described as steps helping the country’s energy independence.
The cooperation agreement with Westinghouse – which is already planning to supply nine of its AP1000 units in Ukraine – is for a joint project to pursue fuel assembly capability in Ukraine.
Earlier this year Westinghouse approved Ukraine’s AtomEnergoMash “as a qualified supplier for the manufacturing of top and bottom nozzles for Westinghouse’s VVER-1000 fuel assemblies in Ukraine, paving the way for this new advanced fuel assembly capability in the country”.
Energoatom CEO Petro Koptin said: “We are continuing our path to establishing our nuclear fuel assembly line in Ukraine by implementing advanced Westinghouse technologies. I am very grateful to our partners for their trust, based on many years of successful cooperation. Step by step, Energoatom is moving towards becoming the centre of nuclear energy in Eastern Europe.”
Tarik Choho, Westinghouse Nuclear Fuel President, said: “We are proud to extend our strong partnership and shared commitment to energy security in Ukraine. Westinghouse has an excellent track record of VVER nuclear fuel design used in VVER-1000 and VVER-440 nuclear power plants in Ukraine, with two decades of exceptional operational performance.”
Agreement with Holtec
Energoatom and Holtec International signed a document outlining the current areas of cooperation between the two companies as well as outlining their intention to implement joint projects to create a plant in Ukraine for the production of components for Holtec small modular reactors and an agreement for Holtec technology to be used by Energoatom for manufacturing containers for storing used nuclear fuel.
(Image: Energoatom)
The two companies already have long-standing links – notably with the Holtec-built Centralised Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility, which uses the Holtec containers, which are manufactured in the USA.
Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko was present for the signing of both agreements with the energy ministry saying the memorandum also envisaged steps towards the future deployment of Holtec’s SMR-300 small modular reactors in Ukraine “in particular through capacity building and technical training with the participation of Ukrainian specialists in the SMR-300 programme at the Palisades nuclear power plant” – Holtec is aiming to have two of its SMRs in operation at Palisades in 2030.
