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Ukraine to increase nuclear fuel imports from US

Xinhua, August 11, 2015

• Kiev hopes to increase purchases of nuclear fuel from the U.S. Westinghouse Electric Company to ease dependence on nuclear materials from Russia, Ukrainian Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said Monday.

  "Currently, we purchase almost 100 percent of fuel from Russia, except for small batches, which we receive from Westinghouse. We are trying to diversify sources," Demchyshyn told a media conference here.

  The minister expressed his hope that next year more than one third of Ukraine's nuclear fuel imports will come from the U.S.-based company.

  Last year, Ukraine imported 589-million-U.S.-dollar nuclear fuel from the Russian state-owned fuel group TVEL and 39-million-dollar fuel from Westinghouse.

  Ukraine, where nuclear energy accounts for over half of power generation, heavily depends on nuclear fuel for its 15 reactors in four nuclear power plants.

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