[bagman]

South Ukraine, Mykolaiev oblast (?) (I don't pretend to understand the Ukrainian political system).

[struwwelpeter]

Oblast' is like a state, and is generally named for the biggest city (Donetska obl, Luhanska obl, etc.). Mykolaiev (Nikolaev) is about 3-4 hundred miles south of Kyiv (Kiev). It's big ship-building city, and a lot of biggest surface ships of the Russian navy were made there. Recently they sold their aircraft carrier to China.

Driving outside of Kyiv (and inside it for that matter) is real white-knuckled. The roads are in awful repair, with lots of dare-devils in all makes of cars - from air-cooled Zaporozhets (Corvair) to ultra-delux Hummers. No insurance, just a belief in sud'ba (fate). A high-up in the US embassy was killed on one of the roads a few years ago.

The only thing worse is flying.

Careful at the airport - on the way out the customs like to find reasons to steal things, even the money in your pocket. Fill out and keep the declarations and all paperwork for cash you receive. If you see a big, blonde guy named Vanya at customs, punch him in the nose for me ;-)

[struwwelpeter]

If your nuclear plant in in Nikolaev oblast', then it's probably the Yuzhno-Ukrainskaya (South Ukrainian) AEhS in the village of Yuzhnoukrainsk, about 60 miles from Nikolaev.

You probably know all this stuff, already:

South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant Yuzhnoukrainsk, Ukraine

SITE DESCRIPTION

The South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant (SUNPP) is located approximately 400 kilometers south of Kiev, Ukraine. The plant has three operating VVER- 1000 nuclear reactors. Units 1 and 2 are Model 302, and Unit 3 is a Model 320. A fourth unit was canceled due to lack of funding. Construction was started in the early 1970s. Unit 1 was brought on-line in 1982, Unit 2 on-line in 1986, and Unit 3 in 1989. These three units generate about 25 percent of the nuclear generated power for Ukraine.

The reactors are fueled with low-enriched uranium fuel. Spent fuel is stored in fuel storage pools in the reactor buildings for many years until they are sufficiently cool for removal for shipment to a fuel reprocessing plant or to an alternate fuel storage area. Currently, a spent fuel storage building is being constructed on-site for dry storage in concrete casks.

Figure 1. SUNPP site layout