Two international agreements on the regulation of the industry have been nullified
FILE PHOTO. Graffiti on the nuclear power plant buildingin Chernobyl. ©Raul Moreno / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
Ukraine’s nuclear regulator announced that its head ordered it to stop working with Russia due to the hostilities between the two nations.
A short statement published on Monday by the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine said that last week, acting Chief Inspector Oleg Korikov ordered that two agreements with Moscow on nuclear regulation be nullified. Signed in 1996 and 2002, they set the legal framework for the agency’s cooperation and information sharing with its Russian counterpart, Rostekhnadzor.
The Ukrainian agency cited “Russian aggression” against the country as the reason for pulling the plug on the agreements. It said it notified the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry about the decision.
Ukraine’s civilian nuclear industry was built when the country was part of the USSR, and for decades it relied on Russian expertise to keep it running. The Russian producer of nuclear fuel rods, TVEL, has long been the primary supplier of fuel for the nation’s power plants.
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The 2014 crisis dealt a serious blow to the cooperation between the two countries, with Kiev declaring that it would use Western fuel instead. However, attempts by America’s Westinghouse Electric Company to create replacement products for Soviet-built plants in Eastern Europe only met with limited success. Ukraine also needs the domestic infrastructure to store nuclear waste, a problem which Russia typically deals with for its clients.
As late as 2018, officials in Kiev said they wanted TVEL to open a subsidiary manufacturer in Ukraine, despite the souring relations between the two nations at the time.
Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.
