KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th April, 2020) Ukraine's Acting Energy Minister Olha Buslavets had a phone call with the US chargé d'affaires on Friday, agreeing to deepen energy cooperation between the two countries, according to the Ukrainian government.
"US Chargé d'Affaires Kristina Kvien congratulated Olha Buslavets on taking the helm of the Ministry of Energy and Environmental Policy. During the online meeting, the officials discussed the state of reforms in the Ukrainian energy sector and agreed to deepen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States in this area," the government said.
The cabinet noted that Ukraine's energy ministry pays special attention to the implementation of joint projects with the US. It, in particular, mentioned projects with Westinghouse to diversify nuclear fuel supply to Ukrainian nuclear power plants and with Holtec International to build a spent nuclear fuel storage facility.
Ukraine contracted with Westinghouse to buy its fuel for some of the country's reactors back in 2014. In January 2019, Ukraine's energy ministry stated that Westinghouse's supplies account for 46 percent of Ukrainian nuclear power plants' fuel and would exceed the share of imported Russian fuel after 2021.
Back 2017, Ukraine's National Nuclear Energy Generating Company Energoatom and Holtec started the construction of a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in the Chernobyl area. According to the Ukrainian authorities, the project will help Ukraine to become independent in the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.
