Nuclear power plant - yes, uranium - no

In the spring, the State Enterprise National Nuclear Energy Generating Company "Energoatom" (SE NNEGC "Energoatom") signed a contract with the Canadian mining company Cameco, which is one of the largest uranium producers in the world, on the use of Ukrainian uranium in the production of fuel for Ukrainian nuclear power plants. And just the other day, Minister of Energy of Ukraine Herman Halushchenko rejoiced at the plans from 2024 to establish in Ukraine a joint production of nuclear fuel with the Westinghouse electrical company and “destroy Russia’s monopoly in this segment.” Lots of plans!

But so far, it has only been possible to qualitatively destroy uranium mining in Ukraine.

The situation is well illustrated by the fact that the strikes of workers of the only uranium producer, the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant (Kirovohrad region), which began back in 2020, are still relevant. Literally in July, another shift of workers refused to go underground to work. The reason is delays in the payment of salaries, reaching up to six months. At the same time, according to the State Enterprise National Nuclear Energy Generating Company "Energoatom" (SE NNEGC), there should definitely have been enough money to pay the workers before last year's collapse in production, but ... it did not reach the miners. In fact, this is quite the basis for at least an internal audit, and ideally an investigation, but the state of things is the same as always. As a result, it was the miners' strikes, and not the war, that led to the fact that a real catastrophe is now happening with the production of marketable products of the Mining and Processing Plant, namely uranium oxide. After all, this production has dropped significantly.

Ukraine needs 2.35 thousand tons of it for nuclear power plants per year. Approximately 170 tons for each reactor that creates energy for a million people. Not even half of it was ever mined. Traditionally, the Mining and Processing Plant produces about 800 tons. The figure has remained virtually unchanged for decades. Although the plans for its doubling and tripling are enough for pasting the facades of both the State Enterprise National Nuclear Energy Generating Company "Energoatom" (SE NNEGC) and the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine...

Even when there was an increase of a couple of hundred tons in 2014-2016, in the end it turned out that this was a scheme for buying cheap Kazakh uranium, which was then resold at a high price to the native state (the price of uranium was subsidized).

The workers, of course, did not get any of this money, and as a result, their patience ran out. Road closures began, pickets in Kyiv and all that. The plant stood for several months. If in 2020 production amounted to 744 tons, then in 2021 it will be almost 300 tons less.

For 2022, 850 tons have been cheerfully planned.

And then a big war came, and at the end of the year, the plant produced a miserable 120 tons.

This year the trends are the same. In this case, if there is no production, then there is no money. They are trying to solve the problem (for the fifth year already) by joining the Mining and Processing Plant to "Energoatom" as a separate division. At first, the State Enterprise National Nuclear Energy Generating Company "Energoatom" (SE NNEGC) openly fought back with all its might, quite publicly declaring that it did not need such a state of affairs and did not like it at all. And that “we are not just a cash desk that gives money. Their uranium concentrate is more expensive than in other countries. At the same time, you have to pay advance payments and get nothing for it.”

Later, public resistance ceased, but nuclear scientists noted with ill-concealed pleasure that such an association was also opposed by the external creditors of the State Enterprise National Nuclear Energy Generating Company "Energoatom" (SE NNEGC) - the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and representatives of the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom). The solution to this issue is stuck. Talks began about the transfer of the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant to management. By the way, this is the fourth manager there in the last three years.

On the eve of the war, at the very end of 2021, the issue was considered at a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC), which resulted in another plan, somewhat more adequate than previous projects.

It consisted in the following: to concentrate on the new Novokonstantynivska mine (which they have been trying to develop in the last few years in the "no shake or roll" mode), and to finalize the residual reserves at both old mines (Smolinska and Ingulets) and close these enterprises. The first in 2023, the second (located in the regional center itself) – in another five years. This is a couple of thousand jobs, a bunch of social issues, and most importantly, this is a sentence for the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant in its current form.

And then a full-scale invasion and rocket attacks began on Kropyvnytskyi. And the question generally left the main agenda in Kyiv.

The Smolinsk mine was quietly closed in February of this year, having been put into dry conservation mode. Plans for the re-profiling of the site (projects were proposed from the construction of a nuclear fuel plant to the extraction of lithium and uranium from neighboring deposits) in the end remained only on paper. Some activity is still going on at the Ingulets mine, but the situation is critical. At the promising Novokonstantynivska mine, workers are also not paid money.

To be honest, when you read about the sinister plans to bankrupt the plant, it becomes sad. There is nothing to go bankrupt there. There is such a phrase "lost by naval means." This is exactly what can be said about the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant.

In general, it remains to separate the "tops and roots." Representatives of the State Enterprise National Nuclear Energy Generating Company "Energoatom" (SE NNEGC) (with the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine) frankly say that it is absolutely uninteresting and not expedient to close two mines. The cost of decommissioning the Smolinsk mine was previously estimated at a billion hryvnias for five years. Rarely, by the way, have I seen projects of anti-missile shelters that were more expensive. Closing the Ingulets mine will cost a lot more.

Naturally, all these costs will be gladly transferred to the state budget (more precisely, to the "Barrier" state enterprise). Fortunately, there was already a successful experience of getting rid of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant (it was also successfully pushed out of the State Enterprise National Nuclear Energy Generating Company "Energoatom" (SE NNEGC).

So the plans are extremely simple: assets are divided into liquid and ... not very. In the Kirovohrad region, these are the half-built Novokonstantynivska mine, the unloading and reloading complex and the transport shops of the closed Ingulets mine.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region (in Zhovti Vody) there is a hydrometallurgical plant and a sulfuric acid shop. Perhaps they will also take over a mechanical repair plant.

And everything that remains can be hung on a nail or on the state budget.

From a commercial point of view, everything is undoubtedly correct and doomed to the support of external creditors. Moreover, the debt of the Mining and Processing Plant to the nuclear industry is in fact hopeless – it is about UAH 3 billion. At the same time, tariffs for the population are now subsidized at the expense of the nuclear sector, and this is already tens of billions of hryvnias...

In general, the plant's debts (except for the nuclear sector, there are both the State Reserve and private traders) even before the war exceeded the volume of its annual revenue. And now all the more. It is clear that the lion's share of them will have to be written off (in the case of the State Enterprise National Nuclear Energy Generating Company "Energoatom" (SE NNEGC), they can be converted into property, to other creditors – a big and heartfelt greetings). But an analysis of how they were formed (with full names and specific "merits") is still useful, so as not to simply start a new cycle of their formation.

Perhaps, indeed, a terrible end is better than endless horror ... But there are nuances, namely people and, in fact, uranium itself.

People are actually pointed to the door, they are kicked out, which has already practically happened at the Smolinska mine. They not only did not give out compensation, they also did not pay salaries. How they will live later, where they will work in a village for nine thousand people, nobody cares.

But what about uranium? Plans to mine 1,500 tons by 2027 at the Novokonstantynivska mine will be corrected again after the disastrous figures of these two years ... Maybe that's enough already?

It is worth finally deciding whether the country needs its own uranium.

Fairy tales that we are about to reach full self-sufficiency are tired. Reach at least half (just don't forget about the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant). It's difficult, but possible. Moreover, Novokonstantynivska mine has a chance to mine uranium at comparable world prices.

At the beginning of 2022, the State Enterprise National Nuclear Energy Generating Company "Energoatom" (SE NNEGC) representatives also talked about “preparing meetings between the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant and Western companies – leaders in the uranium mining industry, to attract modern experience and possible investment support.” It is clear that then it was February 24 and the plans for investing were postponed. But it is worth returning to the topic. Ukrainian private traders have also already made trial attempts to solve the problem, alas, without impressive results, but it can be repeated.

The state also needs to decide. For many years they have been saying that the Novokonstantynavska mine needs money for a start-up complex. At first it was about a billion hryvnia. Now the amount has grown to two billion hryvnias. If we continue not to make decisive decisions in this situation, then in the future we will have to talk about three billion hryvnias. But if we really need uranium, then mining will have to be developed, there are no miracles.

At this time, political representatives are all calm, Canadians from Cameco during 2024-2035 have committed themselves to fully meet the needs of the State Enterprise National Nuclear Energy Generating Company "Energoatom" (SE NNEGC) in uranium raw materials, supplying it and uranium conversion services for all nine reactors of the Rivne, Khmelnytskyi and South Ukrainian nuclear power plants. Six reactors of the occupied Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant are not on this list, but (after de-occupation) deliveries are provided for it as well. Apparently, representatives of "Energoatom" forgot about the second agreement with Cameco, which assumed that the State Enterprise National Nuclear Energy Generating Company "Energoatom" (SE NNEGC) would sell Cameco all the uranium mined in Ukraine by the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant, but there is nothing to sell yet. To be sure, the Canadians will find other uranium to fulfill the contract. Only in the original version, our mining company received an important and large order and profit, but now some other company will earn money.

Let's just clarify: is it definitely government policy to destroy our own resource base in order to buy imported ones? Wouldn't Ukrainian uranium be useful for a project with the Westinghouse electrical company? And in general, doesn't the country need uranium, in which half of the electricity generation comes from nuclear power plants?

Read this article in Ukrainian and russian.