US-based Westinghouse Electric Company and Ukraine’s state-run nuclear utility Energoatom, have signed a memorandum of understanding for the development and deployment of Westinghouse’s AP300 small modular reactor (SMR), with the first units potentially going online within a decade.

The agreement establishes a joint working group to collaborate on areas such as contracting, licensing and the local supply chain.

Ukraine, despite continuing conflict with Russia, is pursuing the carbon neutrality of its energy sector by 2050 and plans to develop nuclear generation in the form of large-scale reactors such as Westinghouse’s AP1000 and advanced SMR plants including the AP300. Nuclear is part of Kyiv’s energy strategy until 2050.

Energoatom said construction of АР1000s in Ukraine would “open the way to the future of the country’s nuclear energy industry”.