SERHIY TULUB
Newly appointed Fuel and Energy Minister Serhiy Tulub, who also continues in the position of Enerhoatom president, did not have to wait long for his first news conference. Last Friday marked the end of a two-week inspection of power units in the Khmelnytsky and Rivne nuclear power plants performed by experts of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) upon request of the Enerhoatom state nuclear energy company. “We have shown the world the main principle of operation of Ukraine’s nuclear power industry, which is the safety of nuclear power plants,” the minister told a news conference called on this occasion.
The international experts at the minister’s side shared this opinion. It was the first time in the practice of the WANO that a group of its experts, headed by Volgodonsk Nuclear Power Plant Chief Engineer Andrei Petrov, checked startup units. According to Petrov, “The units boast an unprecedented level of modernization that meets high international standards. We can say now that these units will have the highest level of safety and will rank among the world’s best.” Farid Tukhmetov, general director of the WANO Moscow Center, thinks the main result of the inspection is the fact that Ukraine favors the idea of nuclear safety, transparency, and progressive technologies in the international nuclear power industry. According to Tukhmetov, the work performed on the startup units in the Rivne and Khmelnytsky nuclear power plants guarantees their successful launch and safe operation. According to Igor Kopeliov, responsible secretary of the WANO Board of Governors and director for operation of the Rosenergoatom Concern, the power plants are adequately manned, their personnel is well trained, has the required licenses, and is skilled enough to perform the adjustment and startup procedures. He further said that the experts found room for improvement, but there are no critical problems that would interfere with the startup of the units. Kopeliov believes that the preliminary inspection results make it possible to state with confidence that the personnel will ensure a timely launch and safe operation of the units.
The minister assured those present that all the flaws discovered by the experts will be eliminated as soon as possible. As was to be expected, the journalists were interested not so much in the minister’s previous record as Enerhoatom president as in his views of the problems in the fuel and energy complex and his plans. Minister Tulub offered and a quick list of his priorities such as reviewing the power industry development strategy, launching the two new nuclear power units, and balancing all kinds of power generation and consumption along with the financial standing of all energy market participants. To this end, the price policy in the power industry should be reviewed. Further, the nation’s energy and coal companies should be created after eliminating the problems connected with bankruptcy proceedings and huge accounts payable and receivable that have accumulated over previous years. Tulub sees his priority in the oil and gas sector in effectively using the funds that are buried underground, “meaning the Odesa-Brody pipeline and Pivdenny Terminal. They must be used for the benefit of the country. There is a relevant government decision, and my ministerial duty is to fulfill it in a timely fashion. There should be no hesitation about this.” The ministry should discard administrative methods of management. With the creation of national companies, the effectiveness of management in these sectors will increase, Tulub is convinced. One of the immediate priorities for this year is to pay back wages that have accumulated in past years, he added.
Answering The Day’s question, he said that he has already studied the price policy in the coal industry. As he put it, progress has been made, but adjustments are needed to make the price policy in the coal industry consistent with the spirit of the times and interests of not the coal industry alone, but also with those of other sectors in the fuel and energy complex. “Today we reviewed the power generation and consumption balance by type of power generation and the needed volumes of the respective raw materials such as gas, coal, and nuclear fuel, along with financial balances. One of the conclusions is that if heat power plants continue to buy coal at its current price, this is bound to cause problems. For this reason, specialists have been assigned a relevant task, and in several days we will return to this issue and coal prices in particular,” the minister said. (It is worth noting that coal prices along with gas costs presently underlie possible price fluctuations). One of the pricing instruments in a market economy is a coal exchange or market. The minister is convinced that “the wholesale coal market is necessary, since it makes it possible to realistically evaluate coal on offer.” According to him, the wholesale coal market will remain, but it is not yet clear what shape it will take, as the ministry is still considering this issue.
Many still see Minister Tulub above all as Enerhoatom president. Yet his responses suggest that since day one in his new post he has begun to reason in broader terms and take into account the interests of the energy complex in general. Thus, speaking about the funding for the program to increase nuclear power plant safety, Tulub noted that it is fully provided for in the rate charged for the power. He further added that “Now I am speaking as the Fuel and Energy Minister: there is a need to optimize the rate policy in Ukraine’s energy system. At the present stage the rate satisfies the current needs of Enerhoatom (recently it has been slightly increased to provide for full financing of thirty-kilometer zones around the units that have resumed operation) and we believe that this is enough. Enerhoatom will continue to work and will fund the remainder at the expense of internal reserves.” This sounds like an answer to those who suspected that the new minister would lobby the interests of the nuclear power industry at the expense of other sectors of the fuel and energy complex.
