Energoatom and Cameco have signed agreements covering the supply of Ukrainian uranium and the production of nuclear fuel for nuclear power plants in Ukraine.

Tim Gitzel, left, and Petro Kotin signed the agreements (Image: @cameconews/Twitter)

Energoatom President Petro Kotin and Cameco's President Tim Gitzel, signed the agreements in London at an event attended by the UK ambassadors of Canada and Ukraine, with Ukraine's energy minister Herman Halushchenko attending online.

The first of the bilateral agreements signed will see Cameco meeting 100% of Energoatom's need for natural uranium hexafluoride from 2024 to 2035 for the nine nuclear reactors at the Rivne, Khmelnitsky and South Ukraine plants for the duration of the contract. These plants have combined requirements over the contract term of some 15.3 million kgU as UF6 - equivalent to 40.1 million pounds U3O8 (15,424 tU).}

The second agreement covers the sale of Ukrainian uranium to Canada, with conversion of the uranium being provided by Cameco.

Kotin said that the two agreements paved the way for concluding a third agreement, on specific quantities of uranium product supply, adding: "Cooperation with Cameco is strategic and necessary for Energoatom, because together with Westinghouse we continue to move to Western standards. The development of domestic nuclear energy is possible only thanks to cooperation with our international partners."

Energoatom was already moving to diversify its nuclear fuel supply before Russia launched its military action on Ukraine, and since then has ended all contracts for Russian fuel.

Halushchenko said: "We already have a good experience of cooperation with Canadian partners and today we are deepening this cooperation. Making such strategic agreements is a matter of Ukraine's national security. We have been living in conditions of daily attacks on the energy sector ... but thanks to the stable operation of nuclear generation, we survived this winter, and for the second month now we have had no shortage of generating capacity."

Gitzel said: "We are grateful and glad to be partners of Energoatom and Ukraine in the nuclear sector. Our teams have worked fruitfully together to come to the signing of these agreements and to agree on cooperation until at least 2035. This is one of the largest and most important contracts for Cameco. Our company will help Ukraine maintain its energy independence, provide your country with electricity thanks to the supply of our nuclear fuel."