Ukraine to start building four new nuclear reactors this year
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Ukraine plans to construct four new nuclear reactors this year by summer or autumn, as reported by Reuters.
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A Russian soldier patrols outside the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine on May 1, 2022. (AFP)
In an exclusive report, Reuters revealed that Ukraine expects to construct four new nuclear power reactors in the upcoming summer or autumn, according to Energy Minister German Galushchenko, as the country aims to offset the loss of energy capacity resulting from the war in Ukraine.
Among these units, two will be based on Russian-made equipment, which Ukraine intends to import from Bulgaria, while the other two will utilize Western technology from power equipment manufacturer Westinghouse.
Galushchenko added that all four reactors will be built at the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant in the west of Ukraine.
"I think (we'll start construction) in summer-autumn," Galushchenko said in an interview, adding that "We need vessels," about the reactor pressure vessels that will have to be imported. "We want to do the third and fourth units right away."
Earlier this week, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna, addressed the concerns of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about mines being placed along the perimeter of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in Ukraine.
The IAEA had released a statement last Friday, asserting that the presence of mines in the buffer zone did not meet its safety standards. Ulyanov countered by emphasizing that the restricted zone is off-limits to plant personnel and insisted that the mines posed a threat only to "rats, crows, and potential saboteurs."
ZNPP secure only with the withdrawal of Kiev's heavy weapons
Back in December, Ulyanov considered that "there are chances of reaching an agreement" about a protection zone around the ZNPP, but it would be too early to say that the deal is close at hand.
According to Ulyanov, "a meeting between the IAEA director-general and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal was held in Paris on Monday. As far as we know, this topic was discussed in detail during these talks. Therefore, the process continues and there are chances of reaching an agreement."
In the same week, a senior official in the Zaporozhye regional government, Vladimir Rogov, said that the main requirement for establishing a security zone around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (ZNPP) should be the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops to a distance from which they will be unable to deliver strikes at the station.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly stated that a safety zone around the ZNPP is required.
