Westinghouse fuel has been loaded into a Russia-designed reactor unit with a capacity of 440 MW for the first time, in what Ukraine’s state nuclear operator Energoatom called “an historic event” as it shifts away from Moscow as its main supplier.

Energoatom said the fuel, produced by Westinghouse at a facility in Sweden, had been loaded into a reactor core at the Rivne nuclear power station in northwest Ukraine.

“Previously, reactors of this type operated only on Russian-manufactured nuclear fuel,” Energoatom said.

Speaking at an event to mark the 10 September fuel loading, Ukraine’s energy minister Herman Halushchenko said it marked the end of the Russian monopoly in this segment of the nuclear fuel market.