Here is another one that clearly shows who basicly have had control over the nuclear field since its birth.
Nuclear fuel of Ukraine
2019-09-25
So we take a little more carefully the pulse of the fundamentals in Ukraine:
Westinghouse Electric Sweden has a historic blend of two innovative corporate cultures, both of which have contributed greatly to the development of nuclear power in the world over the years. The Swedish part has its origins in the company Asea and its nuclear power division, which had its headquarters in Västerås. The American part originates from the company Westinghouse Electric Company with headquarters in Cranberry outside Pittsburg in the USA.
Westinghouse’s American history stretches back more than 130 years, starting in 1886 when George Westinghouse founded the Westinghouse Electric Company. His engineering knowledge and willingness to find new and better solutions to things that could benefit society led his company to grow rapidly. In just over ten years, Westinghouse had more than 50,000 employees and George Westinghouse was hailed as one of the greatest engineers of the time. In 1957, Westinghouse Electric Company developed and delivered the world’s first Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) to Shippingport, Pennsylvania in the USA. The PWR technology that Westinghouse developed is found today in approximately half of all reactors in the world, including three in Sweden (Ringhals 2, 3 and 4).
The story behind the Swedish part of the company started in the 1950s when Sweden entered the nuclear power industry. Young innovative Asea engineers made history when they developed their own Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) technology. A technology that many reactors in the world are built on today.
Over the coming decades, Asea Atom, as the company was then called, built what still today accounts for almost 40% of Sweden’s electricity supply, as well as a significant part of Finland’s electricity supply. On June 1, 1966, construction began on Oskarshamn 1, which was Sweden’s first commercial reactor, and in August 1985, Forsmark 3 and Oskarshamn 3 were put into operation, the latest reactors to be put into commercial operation in Sweden. In total, what is today Westinghouse Electric Sweden built 14 nuclear power reactors in the Nordics during these years, 12 in Sweden and two in Finland. Today, eleven of these reactors are still in operation, while three have had to be shut down as a result of political decisions.
In 1966, Asea also built a nuclear fuel factory outside Västerås. It would support the Swedish nuclear power program with BWR fuel. Today, just over 50 years later, our fuel plant is one of the world’s leading nuclear fuel manufacturing units and produces nuclear fuel for both BWR and PWR reactors as well as for Russian-built VVER reactors.
The collaboration between Asea and state Atomenergi became the commercial company Asea Atom in the late 1960s, which 20 years later became ABB Atom. After the sale, ABB Atom was integrated into the American Westinghouse group and became Westinghouse Atom. Today, the company is called Westinghouse Electric Sweden and is a subsidiary of Westinghouse Electric Company, which in turn is “owned” by the Japanese company Toshiba since 2006. In short, it has a history in the nuclear power industry like few others. Who manufactures the nuclear fuel and the turbines thus determines the control.
The factory it’s all about doesn’t look like much to the world, where it is located among other industrial premises and garages on a wooded fence north of Västerås. However, the street address indicates what is going on behind the discreet facade: Bränslegata 1.
Nuclear fuel has been produced here since the 1960s. In the infancy of Swedish nuclear power, the factory was openly owned by Asea-Atom, which was then co-owned by Wallenberg’s Asea and the Swedish state.
Since then, a lot of hiding water has flowed under Västerå’s bridges.
And there were more reasons than purely business economics. As a spokesman for Westinghouse’s US headquarters put it in the Wall Street Journal:
»The Swedish factory is a crucial outpost in the Western powers’ attempt to limit Russian influence in Eastern Europe.«
Ukraine is Europe’s fourth largest nuclear power nation – after Russia, France and Great Britain – with four nuclear power plants and a total of fifteen reactors. Nuclear power accounts for just over half of Ukraine’s electricity supply.
The Västerås plant is also the only production unit in the West that can produce fuel for Russian-built nuclear power plants. These are fuel elements that are adapted for hexagonal Russian fuel chambers, as opposed to the square ones found in the West.
And an Eastern European country could become more, which is why Westinghouse looked with confidence at the new agreement with Ujraina.
When the fuel shipments started arriving from Västerås to the South Ukraine nuclear power plant in January 2011, however, the scene had changed radically. The pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych had taken over the presidency. And with him a significantly harsher attitude towards Western companies.
In one of his last decisions, Yanukovych had requested a loan from Russia of six billion dollars to build new nuclear power plants. When the smoke of revolution cleared, the plan was solid. Ukraine’s new leadership also wanted to expand nuclear power. But instead of borrowing money and technology from the powerful neighbor to the east, it opened up to Western financing and design. Europe’s fourth largest nuclear power market was once again open to Westinghouse.
How important the issue was to Ukraine was illustrated by the first longer trip abroad that the newly appointed Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk made in early March 2014. It went to Washington where he met President Barack Obama. After the White House, Jatsenjuk immediately traveled on to Pennsylvania, more specifically to Cranberry Township, a small suburb outside Pittsburgh that is the headquarters of the nuclear power giant Westinghouse Electric.
The trip paid off. A month later, on April 11, 2014, the renewed contract with the state-owned Ukrainian nuclear power company Energoatom was in place. The contract stipulated that Westinghouse’s nuclear fuel plant in Västerås would supply fuel elements to the South Ukraine nuclear power plant until 2020. The deal represented about 20 percent of Ukraine’s nuclear fuel supply and was estimated to be worth between $100 million and $200 million.
On November 18, 2014, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg paid a quick visit to Kyiv. The short visit had a specific reason: Solberg was to be present when the heads of the Norwegian, Swedish and Ukrainian radiation safety authorities signed a letter of intent on a new safety agreement.
At a press conference, Prime Minister Arsenij Yatsenyuk told that the country’s goal is to increase its electricity production from nuclear power:
»Therefore, the issue of nuclear safety covered by the bilateral agreement between Ukraine, Norway and Sweden is very important.«
The security agreement was not only important for the general expansion. The agreement also took the weapon out of the hands of Russia in its attacks on the very safety of the use of Westinghouse fuel cells.
In a final line of the statement of intent, it was stated that the projects aimed to “strengthen Ukraine’s independence and its ability to choose international partners in purchasing nuclear material and technology for its nuclear industry.”
That the agreement was important is also explained by the fact that it had been negotiated for a long time, at the very highest level.
Eight months earlier, in March 2014, the Nuclear Security Summit had been held in The Hague, Netherlands. At the meeting, almost all the big elephants were present, including the G7 leaders Obama, Abe, Merkel, Hollande, Cameron, Renzi and Harper. China was represented by President Xi Jinping, Sweden by Fredrik Reinfeldt and Carl Bildt, Ukraine by Foreign Minister Andriy Deschitsya.
At a side meeting, Carl Bildt and Andrij Desjitsja met Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg. That this meeting took place was due to an initiative by the Swedish delegation. Together with their Norwegian colleagues, they had hatched the idea that Ukraine would be offered assistance in the area of nuclear security. Ukraine would have to decide for itself what it wanted help with. It was this arrangement that could now be revealed during Solberg’s visit to Kyiv.
A week later, Sweden’s new foreign minister Margot Wallström landed in the same city. Shortly before, she had published a debate article in Aftonbladet where she wrote that »… today the Riksdag also ratifies the uniquely comprehensive association agreement between Ukraine and the EU.«
While Wallström was being guided around the Maidan, a debate in the Swedish parliament about the association agreement between the EU and Ukraine was in full swing. What many did not know was that the agreement also includes a third party: the organization European Atomic Energy Community, Euratom, whose main goal is “to ensure that all users within the EU have access to a continuous and fair supply of ores and nuclear fuels.”
Also a picture of the company Asea’s old logotype.
They basicly stopped using it right before the Nazis started picking up steam. (Asea became ABB which has been Westinghouse main partner in nuclear stuff )
