Transnational company Westinghouse has sent the State Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation its proposals for improving the design of its fuel assemblies for Ukraine's nuclear power plants (NPP), Business Development Manager at Westinghouse Electric UK Nick Shulyak told Interfax-Ukraine.

"We have handed the proposal ten days ago, now it is up to the regulator to decide," he told Interfax-Ukraine on Friday on the sidelines of an international conference held in St. Petersburg.

In spring 2012 during the scheduled repair at Yuzhnoukrainsk nuclear power plant (NPP) it was established that the Westinghouse fuel assemblies were mechanically damaged, and they cannot be used anymore. Defects in their structure were declared the reason for the damage to the fuel assemblies.

In this regard, Westinghouse has to improve the design of its assemblies for their further delivery and operation at Energoatom's nuclear power plants.

The key supplier of nuclear fuel for Ukrainian nuclear power plants NPPs) is Russia's TVEL. Ukraine continues cooperating with Westinghouse Electric Sweden AB under a contract on commercial supplies of nuclear fuel in 2011-2015.

Energoatom operates all four of the nuclear power stations in Ukraine, with fifteen generating units outfitted with water-cooled fast-breeder reactors with an installed generating capacity of 13.835 gigawatts.