Ukraine can survive without Russian nuclear fuel: minister

KIEV, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine can survive without buying Russian nuclear fuel by replacing it with imports from other countries, Ukrainian Minister of Energy and Coal Igor Nasalyk said here Thursday.

"If Russia stops the supplies, we have enough options and possibilities to support the nuclear industry from other sources," Nasalyk told a press conference here.

According to the minister, currently Ukraine imports about 60 percent of nuclear fuel from Russian state-owned fuel group TVEL and the rest from the European branch of the U.S.-based nuclear power company Westinghouse Electric Company.

Next year, Kiev plans to reduce the share of imports from Russia to 45 percent, Nasalyk said.

As nuclear energy accounts for over half of power generation in the country, Ukraine heavily depends on nuclear fuel for its 15 reactors in four nuclear power plants.

In the first 10 months of 2017, Ukraine imported nuclear fuel totally worth 381 million U.S. dollars, of which 64.1 percent came from Russia.

Ukraine, which relied on Russia for more than 90 percent of its nuclear fuel imports in 2013, has gradually reduced the purchase since the political dispute between Kiev and Moscow in 2014. Enditem