Move will enable Kyiv to complete two Russia-designed VVER units at Khmelnitski
Ukraine’s parliament has voted to support a draft bill allowing Kyiv to buy Russian-made reactor equipment from Bulgaria for the completion of Units 3 and 4 at the Khmelnitski nuclear power station.
The bill was approved on 11 February with 261 votes in favour, Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak announced.
Ukrainian energy minister Herman Halushchenko welcomed the decision, saying it will enable the completion of the two additional units, adding about 2,200 MW to Ukraine’s energy grid.
Ukraine has a fleet of 15 commercial nuclear plants although six, at the Russia-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear station, are in cold shutdown.
Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom is planning to complete Units 3 and 4 at Khmelnitski, about 300 km west of the capital Kyiv in western Ulraine. Both are Russia-designed VVER-1000 pressurised water reactor (PWR) units, construction of which is suspended.
The plan is to buy reactor equipment that was produced by Russia for the abandoned Belene nuclear power station project in Bulgaria.
Bulgaria’s parliament approved negotiations to sell the reactor equipment in July 2023.
Bulgaria Wants €600 Million For Equipment
Bulgarian officials have said they would want no less than €600m ($618m) for the equipment, which is stored at the planned Belene nuclear station site in northern Bulgaria.
Bulgaria received the equipment for the two units, including two reactor pressure vessel and steam generator sets, from Russia in 2018 after settling a Russian compensation claim to the International Court of Arbitration in 2016 for €620m resulting from the cancellation of the Belene project in 2012.
Construction of Khmelnitski-3 and -4 was abandoned in 1990 in the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl accident in Soviet Ukraine and because of financial shortages.
According to Ukraine’s energy ministry, construction of the third unit is 80% complete while the fourth is at 25%.
There are already two Russia-supplied VVER plants at the site that began operation in 1988 and 2005.
Three years of Russian strikes on its power grid have left Ukraine reliant on nuclear power for more than half of its electricity generation. That nuclear power is generated by three functioning stations – Khmelnitski, Rivne and South Ukraine.
International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Rafael Grossi said last week that the agency “stands ready” to support Kyiv’s plans to expand Khmelnitski.
