Kuznetsovsk, a rocket scientists’ town of Rivne’s nuclear power station, used to be amazingly tidy with immaculate lawns and flowerbeds, with thick clouds of steam emanating from the giant heat pumps and floating up to the dark clouds. Last Friday three of the four nuclear power unites were operational, one was under repair. In a word, routine procedures observed by a large power-generating plant producing providing half of Ukraine’s electricity supplies, along with the three other NPS’s.
At present, the nuclear power engineering industry has not only rehabilitated itself after the Chornobyl disaster, it is also considered by the international community as the only existing alternative to hydrocarbon fuel sources — considering that the latter’s resources are nearing exhaustion. Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Minister Yuriy Boiko said as much addressing a Rivne NPS conference. He said that the G-8 energy ministers’ summit in St. Petersburg (held prior to the top-level political meeting) discussed the threat of folding up world economy unless new energy sources are found in the nearest future. Boiko said that the so-called unconventional energy sources (wind and solar power plants) can produce at least 8 percent of the amount of power required planet-wide. In view of the circumstances, the eight ministers admitted that the nuclear power industry has no alternative, not in the immediate future anyway — if the human race wants to evolve.
“Therefore, plans concerning the launch of 20 nuclear power units, declared by the US and China, along with quick neutron reactors, are evidence that all of the energy market operators are aware of the absence of alternatives to nuclear power engineering,” declared the Ukrainian energy minister, adding, “Our country ranks with Europe’s top three nuclear power suppliers; this country has a rich experience in the field, including the Chornobyl disaster, so we must fully integrate into the international nuclear power engineering community and take part in all its programs.”
This global approach to the rocket scientists’ agenda, voiced by a bureaucrat holding the ministerial post (considering the fact that he had never dealt with nuclear power engineering prior to his posting) could be regarded as a signal indicating that the new Ukrainian government is setting course on further progress in nuclear power engineering, and that they are likely to consider attendant priorities.
It should be noted that funding is among the most difficult aspects in implementing nuclear power engineering projects discussed during that meeting. The Ukrainian fuel and energy ministry is counting on several finance resources, including additions to Enerhoatom and Ukrenerho energy transportation tariffs, and special central budget expense items. The question is whether the central budget will be able to shoulder this additional burden. The Day asked MP Volodymyr Bronnykov, chairman of the VR fuel-and-energy committee, whether the Ukrainian parliament was likely to agree to finance such projects.
He had this to say: “I believe that the Verkhovna Rada’s mission is not in financing these projects. We will have to create a system in which such projects could be [automatically] financed. Financing them by bluntly using central budget funds would mean taking money away from schoolteachers, physicians, and pensioners. We have spoken to the minister and discussed the need to set up a special financing system that would help carry out such projects. We would need an energy development bank, a special government-run bank — or maybe another bank officially entitled to channel such investments and closely follow their implementation, lest they be embezzled. For example, such monies could be received on the strength of energy or uranium-producing contracts. Our committee will work on this system and we are doomed to do this job.”







