Contracts have been signed to begin construction of a first AP1000 pressurised water reactor unit at the Khmelnitski nuclear power station in northern Ukraine, David Durham, president of energy systems at Westinghouse, has said.

In an interview with Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Durham said regulatory work supporting Energoatom, the state-owned operator of Ukraine’s 15 nuclear power plants, had begun, particularly with regard to licensing.

Durham said Westinghouse has not been directly involved in the cost estimates for the planned plant, but an estimated cost reported by Interfax of $5bn (€4.5bn) for building a single AP1000 unit aligns with a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for future AP1000 reactors in the US.