Ukraine will compensate for the loss of Zaporizhzhya NPP by building four new reactors – Galushchenko
Ukraine plans to start construction of four new nuclear reactors in the summer or fall of 2024 as it seeks to compensate for the lost energy capacity due to the war with Russia.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said this, according to Reuters.
According to him, two of the units, which include reactors and related equipment, will be based on Russian-made equipment that Ukraine wants to import from Bulgaria, while the other two will use Western technology from energy equipment manufacturer Westinghouse.
According to Halushchenko, all four reactors will be built at the Khmelnytsky NPP in western Ukraine.
“I think we will start construction in the summer or fall. We need reactor vessels, which will have to be imported. We want to build the third and fourth units at once,” the minister said.
It is worth noting that construction of the third and fourth reactors of the Khmelnytsky NPP began in the 1980s but was frozen.
Since gaining independence in 1991, Ukraine has built three new nuclear reactors – one each at Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytsky, and Rivne NPPs.
Currently, three power plants in the government-controlled area produce more than 55% of the country’s electricity needs, but the country wants to expand this sector to compensate for the loss of the Zaporizhzhia NPP, which was seized by the Russian occupiers.
Russia gained control of the facility after the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, and its six nuclear reactors are now “idle.”
“With the third and fourth reactors we want to compensate for the one at Zaporizhzhya NPP, and we are currently negotiating with our Bulgarian partners on two reactors that we want to import. If we received the reactor vessels today, I think it would take 2.5 years and we would have the third reactor in operation,” Galushchenko said.
