On 23 April, Ukraine’s nuclear station operator Energoatom declared that they suspended all payments for nuclear fuel, nuclear materials and disposal of spent reactor fuel as their bank accounts had been seized. Some media tried again to use this topic for coming up with political innuendos. However, Rosatom hastened to reassure the public and reminded that both production and deliveries of fresh fuel for Ukrainian nuclear power plants are performed on a pre-paid basis, as set out in the agreement between TVEL Fuel Company (a subsidiary of Rosatom) and Energoatom. Advance payments are received by TVEL 150 days before the delivery date. This period is meant for the manufacturing of new fuel assemblies. Thus, all the fuel supplied to Ukrainian NPPs until now has been fully paid by the Ukrainian company.

Rosatom noted that Ukrainian nuclear stations had fresh nuclear fuel from Russia in an amount sufficient for sustainable operation. TVEL fully understands problems experienced by Energoatom in relation to the seizure of its accounts and expects them to be solved positively.

Earlier, Rosatom CEO Sergei Kirienko stressed repeatedly that deliveries of nuclear fuel from Russia to Ukrainian nuclear power plants ran on schedule and had never been interrupted.