January 16

Kyiv pushes ahead controversial €600m purchase of Russian ‘junk’ nuclear reactors

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[[{“value”:”nuclear reactors

 

Reviving a Soviet-era project, the Ukrainian parliament has authorised the purchase of two Russian nuclear reactors from Bulgaria.

On Thursday, the energy committee of the Ukrainian parliament voted in favour of a law which ostensibly aims to improve the business environment in the country – but which also contained a last-minute amendment greenlighting the purchase of two old Russian nuclear reactors, to expand the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant.

“The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and/or … ‘Energoatom’ … are granted permission to negotiate, finalize the text, sign, pay for, accept, and store the equipment,” the amendment, seen by Euractiv, reads.

The Khmelnytskyi plant in the south-west of Ukraine was first dreamt up in the early 1970s during the days of Leonid Brezhnev. Due to the Chernobyl disaster, it only ever operated at half capacity.

In 2023, negotiations began to buy two Russian reactors, originally bought for the unfinished Belene nuclear power plant in Bulgaria. The planned purchase has a floated price of at least €600 million.

US company Westinghouse is also planning to build two reactors at the Ukrainian site.

In June 2024, Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko, the initiative’s biggest promoter, said that he was betting on foreign loans to finance the purchase. However, in December, the EU’s representative in Kyiv ruled out support for the project.

Expanding Khmelnytskyi with Russian equipment is controversial. For one, the two countries are at war, and said war has demonstrated that nuclear plants and conflict zones are a poor mix.

Lawmakers also criticise Galushchenko’s pet project for not contributing to the energy supply in the short term, and for its potential impact on power bills.

“The Ukrainian energy system, under constant Russian attacks, needs decentralization,” said opposition lawmaker Inna Sovsun, who sits on the energy committee for the liberal Holos party.

There are also fears that the new power plant could drive up energy bills. Ukrainian nuclear power plant operator Energoatom has stressed that the investment would be made from its “own funds.”

Yaroslav Zheleznyak, also a Holos lawmaker, said “the funding will come from raising tariff[s],” warning of corruption risks on his Telegram on Wednesday.

Another opponent is Volodymyr Omelchenko, of Kyiv-based think-tank Razumkov Center, who is sceptical of buying what he describes as “the cheapest Russian junk.” He believes that Bulgaria was struggling to sell the reactors for good reason,

The law, including its surprise amendment, must be adopted by the plenary chamber before the purchase can proceed. It also does not yet give the go-ahead for construction, just the purchase of the reactors.

At the heart of the hurried nuclear reactor purchase is Galushchenko, in office since April 2021, who has repeatedly stated that the purchase is “urgent”. In September 2024, Sofia extended the deadline for the negotiations until May 2025.

When last week he said the EU and US had confirmed they would help pay for the reactors, tensions ran high in the Ukrainian parliament.

Liberal opposition lawmaker Sovsun challenged Galushchenko on his statement, saying that these delegations had told the energy committee that “there is no such support.”

Galushchenko fired back, suggesting that he did not care about “the position of the middle-level clerks of the European Commission representation.”

Sovsun then launched a motion to censure the minister, based on the fact that he had refused to appear in parliament in September 2024, following a corruption case in his department.

The motion does not have the support of the government majority and will not appear on the agenda of the Ukrainian parliament next week, agency Ukrinform reports. 

[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Owen Morgan]

Source: Euractiv.com

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