OREANDA-NEWS. November 28, 2007. During a meeting of the Subcommission for Nuclear Power and Nuclear Materials of the Committee for Economic Cooperation of the Ukrainian-Russian Interstate Commission held November 20-21, it was noted that Ukraine was interested in guaranteed supplies of nuclear fuel to Ukrainian NPPs, that there was a need to broaden production cooperation in the field of development of new NPP construction projects, and development of feedstock basis, the press service of TVEL reported.

The meeting was held under chairmanship of the Deputy Head of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency of the Russian Federation Ivan Kamenskikh and Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy of Ukraine Yuri Nedashkovsky.

The priority tasks put on the record of meeting include steps to carry out a joint analysis of potential opportunities of supply of Russian technologies to meet energy needs of Ukraine, as well as to prepare proposals on feasibility of Ukrainian-Russian NPP project, in particular, to complete construction of 3-rd and 4-th units of Khmelnitsky NPP. Proposals on organization of the Russian-Ukrainian project to complete construction of this NPP, considering the existing structures, should be developed by May 1, 2008.

The Subcommission for Nuclear Power and Nuclear Materials directed the Ukrainian side to prepare regulatory documents for the Ukrainian participation in activities of the International Center for Uranium Enrichment with a deadline of June 1, 2008.

During the meeting a need was recognized to expedite solving the issue of creating fuel assembly components production in Ukraine in OP Atomenergomash of SE NAEC Energoatom. The Subcommission recommended SE NAEC Energoatom to finish in December the review and signing of a licensing agreement for the technology transfer to Ukraine.

The record of the meeting notes the interest of Ukraine and Russia in more active cooperation in deployment of latest technologies for mining and processing of uranium ores and zirconium production development. The necessity of cooperation of Ukrainian and Russian research institutes in scientific and technological support of mining and processing of uranium ores and development of zirconium production was also noted. It was recommended to task the SE Eastern Mining and Processing Combine (Ukraine) and JSC Atomredmetzoloto (Russia) to cooperate in issues related to development of uranium production in Ukraine.

To develop cooperation in manufacturing zirconium and hafnium products, Mintopenergo of Ukraine and Rosatom were recommended to set up in December a working group with experts of JSC TVEL, SSPE Tsirkonii and JV UKRTVS. Vasili Konstantinov, the Vice President of JSC TVEL who participated in the meeting, thinks the cooperation in fabrication of zirconium products with the Ukrainian enterprises should be considered as a part of Russian-Ukrainian integration in the field of development of capacities to fabricate fuel for Ukrainian NPPs. The working group in January has to write a plan of work for 2008 and submit it to the Commission for review. He said the matter is in the first place the cooperation with precision tubes production enterprises in Dnepropetrovsk or Sumy to make cased tubes out of TREX-tubes supplied by Russia. Besides, a possibility is considered of a deeper cooperation, in particular, in hafnium reprocessing which results from zirconium concentrate production process.