Europe 1 with AFP / Credits: Dmytro Smolyenko / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP 11:54 a.m., January 29, 2024
Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko on Monday indicated Kieb's desire to build four new nuclear reactors. The aim would in particular be to fill the gap caused by the capture, by Russian forces, of the Zaporizhia power plant since March 2022.
Ukraine announced on Monday that it plans to build four new nuclear reactors at its Khmelnitskyi power plant (west) in 2024, in order to compensate for the loss of that of Zaporizhzhia, the largest in Europe, occupied by Russian forces since March 2022. “In 2024, the construction of four new units at the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant should begin,” the Energy Ministry said in a statement, while admitting that the procedure would take “time.”
>> READ ALSO -
Ukraine uncovers embezzlement of $40 million for arms purchases
Compensating for the loss of Zaporizhia
The minister, German Galushchenko, explained that it was a "mechanism aimed at compensating the capacities of the occupied Zaporizhia power plant", in southern Ukraine. He said he was convinced that kyiv would eventually regain control, while noting that it was impossible to predict the "state" in which it would be.
This plant, which previously produced 20% of Ukraine's electricity, has been targeted several times by strikes and suffered power outages linked to the fighting. Moscow and kyiv accuse each other of wanting to cause a catastrophe there.
>> READ ALSO -
Ukraine: the European Union is preparing new sanctions against Russia for the two years of the war
A project that “will take time”
The Khmelnitskii power plant is located in the west of the country, a relatively safe area, but still regularly targeted by Russian strikes. In October 2023, the Ministry of Energy claimed that an attack had hit the area near the nuclear power plant, causing the windows of certain administrative and laboratory buildings to explode.
With additional reactors, the Khmelnitskii power plant would become “the largest in Europe and even more powerful than that of Zaporizhia,” assured German Galushchenko. Ukraine wants to install two VVER-1000 type reactors, of Soviet design, then two others of the AP1000 type, working with the American company Westinghouse, the Ministry of Energy said.
“Construction will take time,” he admitted, assuring that one of these new VVER-1000 reactors could come into operation within “two and a half years” at best. According to the ministry, the more modern AP1000 reactor is particularly more resistant to power outages