A previous article on the safety of Ukrainian nuclear energy, published on New Year's Eve under the title "Ukraine's Choice: If Not War, Then Chernobyl," received numerous reader responses, but frankly disappointed the author with the lack of any reaction from the authorities. Ordinary Ukrainians fully share our alarm and concern about the real prospects of a large-scale nuclear disaster that could occur if American fuel assemblies are used in Soviet-made reactors. For example, one reader wrote on Facebook: "... And now the new minister has decided to buy fuel from power plants in the USA, but for the long-standing regional nuclear power plant owners, this may be unacceptable." People don't even suspect that in the near future they could face the same fate as Pripyat residents who were forced to move from their homes, abandoning everything for the sake of their health... We'll have to suffer not for a year or two, but for decades. Are we prepared for such a turn of events? Another, apparently more technically knowledgeable user, nicknamed Victor Vctos, puts it even more specifically: "Holy shit! Our Energoatom has partnered with the American Westinghouse and will buy nuclear fuel for 100 green lemons, but there are a couple of nuances. The reactors of our nuclear power plants are made in the Soviet Union and have their own standards completely different from American ones, so it's like sticking a square finger into a round ass – theoretically possible, but the geometry will be distorted. Such attempts to subordinate physics to the big purse strings have failed repeatedly. Last December, after yet another experiment with replacing nuclear fuel, the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant completely ground to a halt. The equipment itself is screaming for them to stop shoving all this crap into it. Isn't that enough to set off alarm bells? But these concerns are completely unconcerned by the head of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy, Mr. Demchyshyn, and his subordinate, Yuriy Nedashkovsky, president of the Energoatom concern. Representatives of the Presidential Administration and senior officials in the Cabinet of Ministers have remained silent on the issue, and the most disappointing were the members of the Verkhovna Rada, who are ready to punch each other in the face for the sake of mercenary division of committee and commission positions or salary increases, but who cowardly avoid discussing the most pressing issue of the impending catastrophe that threatens the destruction of the nation. The former "Regional" MPs from the Opposition Bloc look particularly vile in this context. After all, here they are, a ready-made, long-term pretext for substantive criticism of the ruling coalition and the fight against corruption, but these remnants of Yanukovych have shamefully fled, further demonstrating that they bought their seats at considerable expense and sold their consciences.
Prime Minister Mr. Yatsenyuk deserves a separate discussion. Amidst the historical debate about who conquered whom—the Germans the Muscovites, or the Muscovites the Germans—he, too, suffers from a lack of understanding regarding the safety of nuclear power plants, or at least avoids publicly speaking on the subject. But he absolutely mustn't remain deaf and blind, as that could lead to the loss of both his position and his country. Consequently, officials from the Ministry of Fuel and Energy report to Arseniy Petrovich about accidents at nuclear power plants and problems arising in the nuclear energy industry, and therefore about the blatant discrepancies between American nuclear fuel and Russian-made reactors. And if they conceal from him the potential consequences of such discrepancies, then they are criminals of the state, just like those who liquidated the radiation monitoring service at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
It's gratifying that Mr. Yatsenyuk's military-historical discoveries haven't gone unnoticed in the West, and kindly Mrs. Merkel generously donated €500 million to Ukraine for the "reconstruction of Donbas." It's time to pause and remember that every Ukrainian cabinet, regardless of party affiliation or the intended purpose of such foreign aid, has organized the "division" of incoming funds so quickly and skillfully that the stunned public could only scratch their heads for a long time, and they've never been able to trace where the money went. There's no doubt that the same fate awaits "Grandma Merkel's" gift, and that in Donbas, for show, they'll repair a couple of dozen double-glazed windows, as Rinat Akhmetov's foundation certainly did with its last funds.
And there's not a single intelligent person who would suggest Arseniy Petrovich allocate even 50 million euros for nuclear energy safety! Chernobyl personnel are practically screaming about the sarcophagus of the damaged power unit collapsing at an accelerating rate, and that any day now, a corroded ventilation stack could collapse, causing a massive radiation leak, including into the Dnieper River. That would mean thousands of deaths, tens of thousands of cancer patients, hundreds of millions in losses, and, most importantly, as after Chernobyl, the grief and suffering of millions of Ukrainians! Where are our environmentalists? Or are their "green slogans" just convenient packaging for election PR? Where the hell are international organizations like Greenpeace? Of course, competing with oil companies and scrambling for platforms in polar seas is far more profitable than tediously monitoring reactors in the Ukrainian hinterland. But if accidents occur, leading to depressurization of these reactors and widespread contamination of the environment, it will be a disaster for everyone. Or is everyone counting on the wind blowing exclusively toward Russia? And what if it does blow the other way, say, west or north? What will the Germans, the Czechs, or even the Swedes, who were also victims of the Chernobyl accident, say? I'm not even talking about what will become of the central Ukrainian "cherry orchard near the house," celebrated by Taras Grigoryevich, where horsetails and araucarias from the Mesozoic era sprout in the radioactive soil, and six-legged mutant hedgehogs, or even dinosaurs, scurry about...
Ukraine wisely renounced its nuclear status at the time, shedding the crushing burden of military nuclear spending and avoiding the inevitable political complications. While the military threat was thus averted, no one considered that peaceful nuclear energy could be no less dangerous, especially when the most complex scientific and technical issues are tackled by people with the perspective of a Neanderthal.
Let's take another look at the technical essence of the problem. Initially, as is well known, all Ukrainian nuclear power plants were built during the Soviet era and equipped with Soviet-era pressurized water reactors. Since 1991, nuclear fuel supplies to Ukraine have come from Russia, costing the state treasury approximately $600 million per year. To break Russia's monopoly on nuclear fuel supplies, in 2000 Ukraine began working on an alternative program, jointly with the United States, investing at least $130 million (the American side, correspondingly, approximately $70 million).
However, its American partner, Westinghouse, in its rush to capture the lucrative Ukrainian market, did not invest in the construction of test centers and long-term experiments to study the behavior of American-made fuel elements in Russian reactors. Instead, it simply began loading its fuel into Ukrainian nuclear power plant units, effectively moving the test site to our territory.
Thus, Ukraine has become a hostage in the American energy giant's competitive struggle to expand its sphere of influence. Meanwhile, security is of the utmost concern to its American partners: for them, there's little difference between Ukraine, Bikini Atoll, or Hiroshima, as long as it's not on US soil. The number of incidents and accidents related to the incompatibility of American fuel assemblies and reactors that have occurred and continue to occur was detailed in a previous article. Bloggers have already begun posting comics and cartoons online about the possible consequences of a global nuclear catastrophe, whose horrific content gives Hollywood horror films a run for their money.
Are Energoatom specialists truly underestimating the danger of this tragic misalignment of two disparate systems? Is Mr. Nedashkovsky, who initially advocated for Russian nuclear fuel but then abruptly changed his mind so blind? He, more than anyone, knows the opinion of IAEA experts, who have categorically stated that replacing Russian fuel with American fuel at Ukrainian nuclear power plants is impossible.
As proof of this impossibility, Miroslav Lipar, a representative of the IAEA's Department of Nuclear Safety, cited the example of the Rivne nuclear power plant, where they replaced "only a small piece of metal on a safety valve, which was not the original one. This fact led to the closure of the safety valve and the shutdown of the power unit." Any nuclear physicist knows this simple truth: a reactor is built to accommodate specific fuel elements, not the other way around.
It's unclear who needs to spend huge sums of money on dangerous experiments in operating reactors and purchase far more expensive fuel (Energoatom itself admits it's 30-50% more expensive than Russian fuel), although every expert will confirm that nuclear energy abhors political interference, and refusing to cooperate with Rosatom in this situation isn't political expediency, but rather an undermining of Ukraine's energy potential to serve the selfish interests of its American partner.
However, the interests at play here aren't limited to American ones. No one has really questioned why Mr. Nedashkovsky is heading NNEGC Energoatom for the fourth time. Is he truly so indispensable that he should lead Ukraine's main "nuclear agency" under any government? Or are there other reasons for such incredible career stability?
It turns out there is, as was discovered by an audit by the State Financial Inspectorate. In 2011-12, American fuel was supplied to Ukraine through an intermediary, a German company, whose cooperation "led to an inflated price for fuel assemblies for NNEGC Energoatom and an unjustified advance payment of over 100 million euros to the said company," as reported by Ekonomichna Pravda. There are reports that intermediaries continue to profit from Energoatom to this day, meaning Yuriy Oleksandrovich Nedashkovskyi knows exactly how much money to send from the state coffers to his superiors at the Ministry of Fuel and Energy and the Cabinet of Ministers (incidentally, the company he manages has a turnover of almost 20 trillion hryvnias per year and is capable of feeding all of Ukraine's political forces combined), and not forgetting himself. And it doesn't matter that, thanks to his efforts, the sword of Damocles, a second, far more devastating Chernobyl, hangs over Ukraine. However, that's only for him. After Yuri Alexandrovich drunkenly drove his Lexus over the roof several times, he apparently lost his basic instinct for self-preservation, but not all Ukrainians are crazy. They are interested in the prosperous future of their children in a country free of radioactive waste, not the disastrous adventures of Energoatom officials, who are ready to send Ukraine, like kamikazes, on a final, irreversible flight, profiting even from the funeral of their country, which has become a nuclear wasteland.
We urgently demand that these dangerous experiments, which threaten a fatal nuclear catastrophe for millions of Ukrainians, be stopped and that a detailed report on the results of the tests of American Westinghouse fuel assemblies in the reactors of Ukrainian nuclear power plants, as well as on all technical incidents that have occurred during their operation since 2000, be published in all leading Ukrainian media.
It is imperative that the Verkhovna Rada finally address the situation in Ukraine's nuclear energy sector. It is long overdue for it to establish a parliamentary commission to study the operations of the South Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia, and, especially, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plants. The commission's findings should be the subject of separate parliamentary hearings, which should be closely monitored by journalists and the public.
And finally: since there's little hope for our Ukrainian environmentalists and time is running out, all of us who care about the fate of our country need to contact Greenpeace and literally beg them to organize ongoing monitoring at Ukrainian nuclear power plants, with the results published in reputable media. Perhaps this will finally force Energoatom to remember the safety of the industry entrusted to it.
Let us remember that it depends on us what the future of Ukraine will be like, and whether there will be one at all.
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