"We are very active in Ukraine. We are very proud of our work there. We are now in a strategic relationship with Ukraine. This year we will provide six re-loads for their 13 VVER-1000 [Russia-built nuclear centrals], which makes Westinghouse provide about 30% of the country's electricity," he said in an interview with Euractiv.
At the same time, the official noted a force majeure clause in the Westinghouse contract: "if for whatever reason there is a supply disruption from another supplier, Westinghouse will supply all of the fuel."
He added that the company provided a sort of a "security blanket" for Ukraine, also believing "this has been mutually beneficial."
Fuel prices have gone down, while fuel performance has gone up since the company has started competing with their existing supplier, Kirst said.
It turns out that Ukraine, which is not an EU member, better implements EU policy of making sure that there is a diversity of supply for Russia-built nuclear power plants, reads the interview.
"We find this one the biggest ironies of this discussion. Maybe this is because the Ukrainians have more historical references for not having diversified nuclear fuel supply," Kirst said.
