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There are four Westinghouse AP1000 Units in operation in China, including two at Haiyang (pictured). Courtesy SPIC. US-based Westinghouse Electric Company and Energoatom, the state-owned nuclear utility of Ukraine, have signed an exclusive agreement to bring Westinghouse AP1000 reactors to multiple sites in the eastern European country.

The signing of what Westinghouse said was an “historic” agreement took place at the US Department of Energy headquarters in Washington and was witnessed by Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm and Ukraine’s energy minister German Galushchenko.

Energoatom, operates Ukraine’s fleet of 15 commercial nuclear power plants, which in 2020 provided about 51% of the country’s electricity production share. Two Russia-supplied VVER-1000 PWRs units have been under construction at Khmelnitski-3 and -4 since the late 1980s, but progress has mostly stalled for years, because of financing and political issues.

A joint statement by Energoatom and Westinghouse did not say which sites in Ukraine are under consideration for AP1000 plants.

In July, the two companies said they had agreed to take steps towards cooperation in potentially deploying new nuclear power units in Ukraine.

Westinghouse and Energoatom have signed a number of contracts over the past years for the supply of Westinghouse-made fuel for a large part of Ukraine’s reactor fleet.

Westinghouse AP1000 technology is the only Generation III+ reactor technology licensed by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and in several countries in Europe and Asia. Four AP1000 units are in commercial operation in China – two at the Sanmen nuclear station and two at Haiyang. Two are nearing completion at the Vogtle site in the US state of Georgia.

The AP1000 technology has been selected for a six-unit project in India and is under consideration by several countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, and utilities in the US, Westinghouse said.

Date: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Original article: nucnet.org/news/westinghouse-signs-agreement-to-deploy-ap1000-reactor-technology-at-multiple-sites-9-3-2021