Ukraine plans to build a nuclear fuel fabrication plant of at the South Ukraine NPP site, and will announce a tender for the construction and financing of the project in the autumn of 2019, Igor Nasalik, Minister of Energy and Coal Industry, told the International Energy Forum in Kiev organised by the Adam Smith Institute on 26 February. He said the technology will be provided by US-based Westinghouse, which is also ready to co-finance the project. However, if Westinghouse only provides the technology, then financing can be provided by nuclear utility Energoatom. He estimated that the cost of building a plant capable of producing fuel powder and pellets will be about $400 million, while a plant which only undertakes component assembly would cost $120–130 million.
In November 2018, the first vice president and technical director of Energoatom, Alexander Shavlakov, mentioned plans to expand the production of components (heads and liners) for Westinghouse fuel cassettes at a plant based in South Ukraine.
Before the change of government in 2014, Ukraine had signed a contract for the construction in the Kirovograd region of fuel fabrication plant of nuclear using technology from Russian fuel company Tvel. In 2011, the state concern Nuclear Fuel and Tvel registered a joint venture, the Nuclear Fuel Plant. The shares in the share capital of the plant were distributed as follows: 50% plus 1 share to the Nuclear Fuel Group, and 50% less 1 share to TVEL.
Shareholders of the joint venture at the end of 2013 planned to increase the authorised capital of the plant with additional $ 84 million to start construction of the plant in Kirovograd. The total construction cost of the plant was estimated at $450 million. The first phase of the plant was scheduled for completion in 2015 but political changes in Ukraine prevented any progress being made and in 2016 the State Nuclear Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation refused the application for a construction licence. Discussions on the project continued, including the possible involvement of China in 2018 as a third party, but these came to nothing.
