Ukraine’s Cabinet on 4 December appointed Pavel Pavlyshin as acting head of nuclear utility Energoatom, following the dismissal of Yury Nedashkovsky for ineffective management, failure to fulfill financial plans, and suspected embezzlement. Since 2012, Pavlyshin has been director general of the Rovno NPP, where he had worked since 1992, initially as operator of the reactor department of the reactor shop. On 6 December, Prime Minister Aleksey Goncharuk formally presented him at the Energoatom central office. The event was also attended by the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Nuclear Energy and Nuclear Safety of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) Committee on Energy and Housing and Communal Services, Ostap Shipailo and the Minister of Energy and the Environment, Alexei Orzhel.
Introducing Pavlyshin, Goncharuk noted that the decision to change the head of Energoatom was primarily because, “the team is being updated”. He added: “We have a minister responsible for shaping the state policy in the energy sector and that minister has a vision, including personnel policy. Pavel Yaremovich and I still did not have many opportunities to talk, but we know him as an authoritative leader, a person who understands very well what the nuclear industry is. We have full confidence in Pavel Yaremovich, and we would like the Energoatom team to accept the decision of the government with understanding,” he said.
Energy and Environmental Protection Minister Aleksey Orzhel noted: “Energoatom is the main element of energy production. The priority of nuclear energy is safety, economics and efficiency. Today we are faced with the task of demonstrating high efficiency and maintaining our status as the locomotive of the economy and energy for the nuclear industry.”
In response, Pavlyshin noted: “We have a very large and powerful team, and our main task is the safe operation of nuclear power plants. At the same time, there are many problems in the nuclear industry right now - the ultra-high volume of upgrading projects, the slowdown of investment projects and many other issues that need to be addressed. But I’m sure that through joint efforts with the government and parliament we can successfully solve them.”
