Ukraine plans to start construction of four nuclear reactors in summer or fall

The head of the Energy Ministry, Herman Halushchenko, told Reuters.

According to him, two blocks, which will include reactors and related equipment, will be based on Russian-made equipment that Ukraine wants to import from Bulgaria, while two more will use Western technology from Westinghouse.

All four reactors will be built at the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant, Halushchenko said.

"We need the reactor vessels. We want to immediately build the third and fourth blocks," the minister said.

He emphasized that the two new power units of Khmelnytskyi NPP should compensate for the loss of the occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP.

"If we received the reactor vessels today, I think it would take 2.5 years to get the third reactor in service," the Energy Minister said.

As a reminder, Zaporizhzhia NPP is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and the third largest in the world in terms of total capacity. It consists of six nuclear power units of 1 GW each.

• In December 2023, it was reported that the Khmelnytskyi NPP would build a new reactor based on the American AR1000 technology.
• On January 12, 2024, Energoatom said that the construction of new units at Khmelnytskyi NPP would create up to 9,000 workplaces.