UF6 will ultimately go to Westinghouse to be made into nuclear fuel
Ukraine’s Eastern Mining and Processing Plant (VostGOK) has sent a first batch of domestic uranium concentrate to Canada’s Cameco for further processing and eventual nuclear fuel production, reports in local media said.
Interfax Ukraine said Cameco is to convert the batch to uranium hexafluoride (UF6) before it is sent to Urenco, the British-German-Dutch nuclear fuel consortium, for enrichment and ultimately to Westinghouse for fuel manufacturing.
In April 2023, Cameco and Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear operator Energoatom signed the final agreement needed for a programme to export all of Ukraine’s uranium production for processing in Canada to produce fuel for Ukrainian nuclear power plants.
The agreement would see Cameco supply 100% of Energoatom’s UF6 requirements – consisting of uranium and conversion services – for the nine nuclear units at its Rovno (four units), Khmelnitski (two units) and South Ukraine (three units) nuclear power stations for the duration of the contract.
In August, the UK agreed to guarantee a £192m (€224m, $245m) finance deal for Ukraine to buy nuclear fuel from producers including UK companies and end its reliance on Russia.
The UK would provide the loan guarantee to Energoatom via the UK’s export credit agency, UK Export Finance.
Through the deal, Urenco would supply Energoatom with uranium enrichment services.
In June 2022, Westinghouse and Energoatom signed agreements for the supply of nuclear fuel for the country’s entire reactor fleet and an ambitious expansion of a planned AP1000 new-build programme.
The US company started supplying fuel for Russia-designed VVER-1000 pressurised water reactor units in Ukraine’s commercial fleet as early as 2014, with seven out of 15 Ukrainian reactors running on Westinghouse fuel at the time Russia’s invasion began in February 2022.
Earlier this month, the first batch of Westinghouse-made VVER-440 fuel was loaded into the core of the Rivne-1 nuclear plant in Ukraine, one of the two VVER-440 units in the country.
