Ukraine’s nuclear power engineering will continue being developed. Premier Viktor Yanukovych reaffirmed this on Saturday when he attended the ceremony of launching the fourth power unit at the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant (which had actually been linked to the Ukrainian power system on October 10) and buried a capsule under the cornerstone of the fifth unit, marking the beginning of its construction. Moreover, at a meeting commemorating the placement of the capsule, it was stated the sixth power unit would also be built eventually. The premier said that, after launching the second power unit at the Khmelnytsky plant and the forth one at Rivne, Ukraine now ranked with Europe’s three countries with advanced nuclear power engineering. This allowed the government to launch the program “Bright City,” meant to improve electricity supplies to populated areas, specifically by lowering the cost of lighting in the city three times.
That same day, the Transfiguration Cathedral was opened and an apartment house made available in the nuclear power engineers’ capital of Kuznetsovsk.
The Rivne NPP started being built in 1974. Originally, it was intended as Ukraine’s first nuclear-generating plant of six power units. The fist unit was connected to the power system in 1980. The fourth was scheduled for 1990, but the Soviet Union’s collapse and lack of funds postponed its commissioning for fourteen years. Volodymyr Korovkyn, former Rivne NPP manager, currently vice president of the Enerhoatom national company, said that they had struggled for the fourth power unit, using all possible and impossible means, and that it was built entirely at Ukraine’s expense, without any foreign investments. Another reason to feel proud is that the second Khmelnytsky and the fourth Rivne power units were the first in the former Soviet territory to pass safety muster, in accordance with international standards. “We can be proud of our nuclear power engineers,” said Premier Viktor Yanukovych. Looking at them, one wants to believe that our country will have enough resources to develop independently. I only want to promise them that the government will continue to take special care of our nuclear power engineering. We are opening the fifteenth power unit in Ukraine and we hope that it is not the last one.” RNPP personnel present at the ceremony heard solemn promises that the construction of the fifth unit will not be drawn out over the next twenty years, as was the case with the fourth one.
It is also true, however, that something will have to be done before building the fifth power unit. The main thing is setting up a special foundation for putting obsolete nuclear power stations out of operation. Hennady Sazonov, in charge of completing the fourth Rivne and second Khmelnytsky power units, said the law allows to establish this foundation only in the first quarter of 2005. Also, several normative documents are required in support of this law. Last but not least, the fifth unit will be a difficult construction project in absence of project documentation. The units put in operation this year were built using designs dating from the 1980s, so working on these projects was considerably easier. No one is working on the fifth power unit design, in the absence of the main element: cabinet resolution on its feasibility. When asked by The Day, Hennady Sazonov said the placement of the capsule was the premier’s sole initiative, and that it would help everybody get through the domestic bureaucratese maze, which is inevitable when starting on a new project.” There are also purely technical obstacles. Now is the time of a new generation of nuclear power units capable of replacing the traditional V-320 model based on the VVER-1000 reactor. The same problem faces the R&D team of the third Khmelnytsky unit. They plan a tender next year for a modern nuclear generating device.
Meanwhile, putting nuclear power unit into operation is not an end in itself, of course. It is important to sell all such surplus energy at good prices. “Exporting electricity [to Russia — Auth.] is regulated by the National Energy Committee and it has set the deadlines in the last months of 2004, but with a right to renew such contracts,” said Enerhoatom’s corporate development manager Maksym Rusynov. “The main condition of the contract selling 500 million kWh monthly is compulsory prepayment before the 25th day of every preceding month.” Ukrainian electricity will be supplied to Russia at prices higher than the current domestic tariff (6.91 kopiykas per kWh). Rusynov added that the profitability factor would be added, but that no one intended to raise the wholesale prices too high; the estimated ceiling is 7-8 kopiykas. “The contract will become effective when the Russian side adds our supplies to its energy balance sheet,” said Rusynov. “Our side worked the contract out for three and a half months, because we had long drawn up our balance sheet. Now we are waiting for the Russian side to make their move.” Incidentally, it looks as though the Russian partner will be the Transnafta oil company... Ukraine, however, will supply electricity not only to Russia. After activating the Khmelnytsky and Rivne power units, electricity will be exported to Europe through the Burshtyn Power Island, Premier Yanukovych told journalists, adding that Ukraine has exported four billion kWh and intends to increase the amount.
COMMENTARY
Hennady Rudenko, MP, chairman of the VR Ecological Policy, Use of Nature, and Chornobyl Relief Committee, told The Day, “Ukraine had no right to leave the second Khmelnytsky and the fourth Rivne power units uncompleted. This would be unfair toward the Ukrainian taxpayer. We are a big enough country not to discard nuclear power engineering. At the same time, such projects require public discussions.” Rudenko added that Western experts confirm the high safety standards of the Ukrainian power units, and stressed that alternative kinds of energy must be developed in Ukraine: “Our country has enough potential to work on renewable sources of energy. The national energy sector strategic development program envisages supplying 5% electricity, using unconventional sources (wind, solar, and biological energy). We must have part of the nuclear power plants’ revenues reinvested in the development of alternative energy sources.”
