Representatives of the UK and Ukrainian civil nuclear industries, the Nuclear Industry Association (NIA) and the Ukrainian Nuclear Forum, have signed a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding.
It establishes significant new areas of cooperation on complex decommissioning, SMR deployment, and lobbying for trusted partner status under the EU’s Industrial Accelerator Act to promote nuclear power for energy security in both countries.
Nuclear energy plays a critical role in Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression, providing around 55% of the country’s wartime electricity.
This expanded collaboration is founded on the UK’s existing fuel partnership with Ukraine. Urenco, a company which is one-third owned by the UK Government, has supplied Ukraine for over ten years and currently supplies all the uranium enrichment services required by Energoatom to operate its nuclear reactors in Ukraine. The UK government has also provided £210 million in loan guarantees to support Energoatom, the operator of all nuclear power plants in Ukraine, in purchasing enriched uranium.
The EU’s Industrial Accelerator Act
To provide energy security across Europe, the UK and Ukraine are committed to a major expansion of nuclear power by 2050. As part of that, the nuclear industries will lobby for UK and Ukrainian industrial content to be treated as equivalent to Union origin content under the EU’s Industrial Accelerator Act (the IAA).
The IAA, as currently drafted, mandates a certain amount of content for new-build nuclear power plants come from the EU. British and Ukrainian content may be excluded or disadvantaged in such projects.
Since the UK and Ukraine work closely with many EU partners in the nuclear industry and have more developed nuclear industries than many EU countries, treating British and Ukrainian content favourably will make EU projects faster and cheaper to deliver.
Decommissioning
To reduce the time and cost of decommission, both industries will organise technical exchange visits. These will support the development of robotic systems, remote handling, and digital monitoring and share the significant experience gained from major decommissioning projects at Sellafield in the UK and Chornobyl in Ukraine.
Small Modular Reactors
With the Verkhovna Rada, Parliament of Ukraine, considering a draft law to facilitate SMR deployment, the UK nuclear industry, one of the global leaders in SMR development, will provide advice and best practice on SMR deployment, regulation and siting.
UK trade mission to Ukraine
This landmark agreement was signed on the UK civil nuclear industry trade mission, led by NIA chair Lord McNicol of West Kilbride, to Ukraine in July.
During the mission, the NIA and Amentum, one of the UK’s largest civil nuclear companies, met with the largest companies in Ukraine’s nuclear industry, as well as the Deputy Minister of Energy Anatolii Kutsevol, leading MPs on the nuclear energy sub-committee of the Verkhovna Rada, and the State Agency of Exclusion Zone Management and its subsidiaries.
Ihor Dir, Director-General of the Ukrainian Nuclear Forum, said:
“The Ukrainian Nuclear Forum expresses its gratitude to all participants of the working meetings and discussions for their professional approach and concern, and we also hope that the consensus reached will contribute to expanding the participation of Ukrainian and British companies in the implementation of international nuclear programs.”
Lord McNicol, Chair of the Nuclear Industry Association, said:
“Nuclear power is a critical foundation for a free and prosperous Europe. Building on the UK’s 100-year partnership with Ukraine, our nuclear industries will honour this and work together to strengthen this foundation for the continent. We can learn from each other on new nuclear and decommissioning to make projects faster, cheaper and more efficient.”
As the trade association for the civil nuclear industry in the UK, the Nuclear Industry Association represents over 340 companies across the UK’s nuclear supply chain.
