For the first time, Ukraine loaded nuclear fuel of non-Russian origin into one of the reactors of the Rivne nuclear power plant.
As reported by the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine, the VVER-440 reactor was loaded with fuel from Westinghouse Electric Sweden (an American company in Sweden), produced with the participation of specialists from the Ukrainian NAEC "Energoatom".
"Ukraine continues the course to strengthen energy independence and shows the world an example of how to eliminate the terrorist state of Russia from the nuclear technology markets [...]. Previously, reactors of this type [VVER-440] operated only on Russian-made nuclear fuel," the agencyʼs press service reported.
According to the Ministry of Energy, the contract for the supply of the relevant VVER-440 fuel assemblies was concluded in September 2020. Currently, 17 VVER-440 units are operating in Europe. Until recently, they had no alternative to Russian fuel.