Westinghouse among US delegation to Ukraine

Westinghouse Electric Company and Ukrainian officials have reiterated their support for a comprehensive program to implement efficiency and safety improvements to the country's nuclear fleet, which they said will provide significant energy supply and security for Ukraine. Westinghouse, which is majority-owned by Japan's Toshiba, was one of several US-based companies to join an official delegation to Kiev led by US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker yesterday.

Westinghouse Electric Company and Ukrainian officials have reiterated their support for a comprehensive program to implement efficiency and safety improvements to the country's nuclear fleet, which they said will provide significant energy supply and security for Ukraine. Westinghouse, which is majority-owned by Japan's Toshiba, was one of several US-based companies to join an official delegation to Kiev led by US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker yesterday.

Roderick, Yatsenyuk and Pritzker (centre) with the US delegation to Ukraine in Kiev yesterday (Image: Ukrainian prime minister's office)

Along with the heads of other companies - which included Cargill, Citibank, DuPont, Honeywell and NCH Capital Inc - Westinghouse president and CEO Danny Roderick met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

Westinghouse and Ukraine's state-run nuclear power plant operator Energoatom last December agreed "to significantly increase" nuclear fuel deliveries to Ukrainian nuclear power plants until 2020. They said this increased cooperation will bring diversification and security of nuclear fuel supplies for Ukraine's reactor fleet.

In a Westinghouse statement issued yesterday, Roderick noted that Ukraine relies on nuclear energy for more than 50% of its electricity demand. Success in its collaboration with Energoatom, he said, will "increase Ukraine's domestic energy output while enhancing security and safety, providing for Ukrainians' electricity needs and the country's energy integration into the European energy markets' trading capabilities".

In a statement published yesterday on his official website, Yatsenyuk said this project was "going very well" and that Ukraine hopes to receive additional funding from US institutions, including the Export-Import Bank of the United States and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

"American business is demonstrating, not in words but in deeds, that they are investing in and are ready to develop the Ukrainian economy, and are introducing here a new style and type of management," Yatsenyuk said. The development of democracy in Ukraine "needs to be backed by the economic development ... We are confident that this meeting will give tangible results."

Addressing representatives of the US companies, he said: "You have questions, we have answers. You have investments, we are ready to receive them."

Yatsenyuk noted that, "together with its US partners", the government of Ukraine had launched a series of investment forums that began with the Ukrainian-American investment forum held in Washington D.C. on 13 July. At that forum, US government and company officials "declared clearly" that they support Ukraine, he added. Ukraine held a similar forum in Berlin on 23 October and plans to hold one in Paris, he said.

The objective of yesterday's meeting, he said, "was to hold very clear talks on attracting US investment".

Citibank's involvement will help with this, he said, "because where there is Citibank, American business comes to invest much faster there".

The government's talks with the bank included the need to hold a conference on investment in Ukraine, "in order to make G-20 credit guarantee institutions hold a meeting with us", he said.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News