Ukraine’s state nuclear operator Energoatom has two main options for attracting investment for the completion of two unfinished plants at the Khmelnitski nuclear power station, Herman Halushchenko, the company’s vice-president of development, said in an interview posted on the company’s website.

Mr Halushchenko said the first option is to charge customers an extra 20 Ukrainian Hryvnia (about 60 euro cents) for each kWh of electricity they buy. This would produce the required funding for Khmelnitski-3 and -4 in five years, he said.

The second option is switching the existing Khmelnitski-2 plant to work in the EU energy system, known as Entso-E (European Network of Transmission System Operators). The funds received from the export of electricity would be used to complete the two units, Mr Halushchenko said.

Disconnection of Unit 2 from Ukraine’s national grid and its transfer to the Entso-E network for the purpose of exporting Ukrainian nuclear power remains “a topical project”, he said.