New reactors will be built at the Khmelnytsky NPP.
Ukraine hopes to sign an agreement in June to buy two nuclear reactors from Bulgaria to compensate for the loss of access to the Russian-occupied six-unit Zaporozhye power plant.
This was announced by the head of NNEGC Energoatom Petr Kotin in an interview with Reuters. The new reactors will be built at the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant in western Ukraine and equipped with Russian-made equipment that Kyiv wants to import from Bulgaria.
“Negotiations between the governments of Ukraine and Bulgaria are continuing, and I think that somewhere in June we will have the result of concluding contracts with Bulgaria for the purchase of this equipment,” said Petr Kotin, head of the Energoatom nuclear company.
“I set a task for our construction organization and the administration of the Khmelnytsky station so that the facility would be ready for the installation of new equipment by June,” he added, referring to the first of two reactors.
According to him, if the reactor is delivered on time and in full, Energoatom will be ready to begin start-up work on the new reactor in two to three years. This is also the time required to manufacture the turbine for the unit.
Kotin noted that the company is in preliminary negotiations with General Electric about the construction of the turbine. The second reactor will be installed later; he did not give a time frame. He added that Bulgaria previously set the price for two reactors at $600 million, but is seeking to increase the price for equipment, which, except for Bulgaria, can only be bought in Russia.
“There is a constant desire on the Bulgarian side to get greater benefits for themselves than these $600 million, and the more time passes, the higher the prices they voice. But we are still focused on the price of $600 million,” Kotin noted.
He said that Energoatom intends to build two more reactors at the Khmelnytsky NPP based on the American AP-1000 reactor, and in early April the company will begin concreting two new blocks.
State of the Ukrainian energy system
On March 22, during a large-scale missile attack on Ukraine, the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant was on the verge of blackout. Then the external overhead line connecting the temporarily occupied Zaporizhia NPP with the unified energy system of Ukraine was switched off.
In total, since the beginning of the Russian occupation, the Zaporozhye NPP has already experienced 8 complete blackouts and one partial one – with the launch of emergency diesel generators and safety systems. If they fail, there is a risk of developing a nuclear and radiation accident.
