China Ready to Supply Nuclear Fuel to Ukraine

Paul Goble

 

            Staunton, January 17 – China’s National Nuclear Corporation says it is ready to supply nuclear fuel to Ukraine and other East European countries, thus reducing still further Ukraine’s dependence on Russia and stealing a march on the US and EU countries which have been trying to break into the Ukrainian market without success.

 

            But both because of licensing arrangements China has with Russian producers and because of the difficulties in exactly meeting the fuel requirements of Russian or Soviet-built reactors, Moscow experts say it may be five years of more before China could displace Russia as Ukraine’s supplier (vz.ru/economy/2015/1/16/724759.html).

 

            Ukraine has been seeking an alternative source of fuel for its atomic power stations for at least five years and has already turned to Westinghouse, an American firm, but there have been problems with fitting the fuel rods into the reactors; and that may be another opportunity or problem for the Chinese as well.