Ukraine's Ministry of Energy yesterday held a meeting with representatives from Energoatom, state uranium mining concerns, trade unions, people's deputies and others to resolve issues related to the production and supply of uranium from the country's uranium mines. According to the national Ukrinform news agency, all uranium mining by state enterprise VostokGOK was suspended on 7 December.
"Since December 7, due to a lack of funds, all divisions of the SOE Eastern Mining and Processing Plant work [are] in idle mode," the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine said today. "Thus, the production process was stopped at all three mines of the enterprise. That threatens bankruptcy of the enterprise in 1-2 months."
At the meeting, Deputy Minister Maxim Nemchinov called on representatives of the state-owned enterprises to engage in dialogue to reach a consensus and develop proposals for solutions to meet their obligations while maintaining uranium production in Ukraine.
An open letter from the trade union of the state nuclear energy company Energoatom has refuted allegations that Energoatom has failed to fulfill its obligations to VostokGOK. Under an agreement signed a year ago, Energoatom has this year paid over UAH 2.6 billion (USD92.5 million) in advance to VostokGOK for the supply of 800 tonnes of uranium oxide.
According to World Nuclear Association, Ukraine's three operating uranium mines produced 801 tU in 2019. All of Ukraine's uranium production is fabricated into nuclear fuel by TVEL of Russia and used in Ukraine's nuclear reactors.
