The National Security and Defense Council decided to take away from Rosatom half of the shares of a nuclear fuel plant that has not yet been built

The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) decided to forcibly seize the Russian share of shares in the private joint-stock company Nuclear Fuel Production Plant.

The shares belong to the TVEL joint-stock company, which is a Russian nuclear fuel producer and is part of the state corporation Rosatom.

According to media reports, the document on the forced seizure of shares has already been signed by President Vladimir Zelensky. According to the decision of the National Security and Defense Council, the Cabinet of Ministers must ensure its implementation within a month.

According to YouControl data, TVEL now owns 50% of the shares of the Ukrainian Nuclear Fuel Production Plant. The other half is the share of the Ukrainian state concern Nuclear Fuel. However, these shares are not equal, since the size of Ukraine’s contribution to the company’s authorized capital is still 20 hryvnia more than Russia’s, amounting to 50.00000619%.

What is known about the “Nuclear Fuel Plant”

PJSC “Nuclear Fuel Production Plant” is registered in the village of Smolino (Kirovograd region). An agreement on the construction of a corresponding enterprise there was signed in October 2010.

However, the decision to build was revised due to the Russian aggression in 2014. In October 2015, the then Ukrainian Minister of Energy Vladimir Demchishin said that TVEL was not fulfilling its obligations to build the plant, so the agreement would be terminated.

In December 2016, new minister Igor Nasalik announced that Ukraine was again planning to build a plant to produce fuel assemblies for nuclear power plants. In 2019, the Ministry of Energy announced plans to announce a competition for the construction of a plant in Yuzhnoukrainsk, Nikolaev region, but such construction has not yet begun.

We also note that in the register of court decisions there is a resolution dated 2022, where, among other enterprises, the “Nuclear Fuel Production Plant” appears, with a commentary on the existence of a significant risk in the management of this legal entity making decisions to the detriment of the state security of Ukraine.

The new plant will be

At the beginning of April 2024, the National Nuclear Energy Generating Company Energoatom announced that a complex for the production of fuel assemblies would nevertheless be built near Yuzhnoukrainsk: the corresponding decision was approved at public hearings held in the satellite city of the nuclear power plant.

According to the project, it is planned to create a modern production of nuclear fuel for VVER-1000 type reactors. This is of strategic importance, as it will allow Ukraine to provide its nuclear power plants with high-quality fuel and reduce dependence on foreign suppliers.

Power units of this type are used by all operating nuclear power plants in Ukraine, including the most powerful - Zaporozhye, which has been occupied by Russia since March 2022 and is actually under the control of Rosatom.