Ukraine's state-owned nuclear power enterprise Energoatom and the US nuclear power company Westinghouse signed a memorandum of agreement on Tuesday with a view to expanding Ukraine's nuclear power industry.
President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted on Tuesday during his visit to the US that the costs for the construction of five power plant units would amount to up to 25 billion euros (30 billion dollars).
I commend the signing of a memorandum between NNEGC #Energoatom & Westinghouse electric @W__Home on the joint construction of the #KhmelnytskyiNPP power unit as a pilot project & 4 more units under their technology in the future. The total cost of the project is up to $30 billion
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 31, 2021
The pilot project is to be a reactor block at the already operational nuclear power plant in Khmelnytsky in western Ukraine. Two Soviet units are already in operation there, while two more are under construction.
More than 50 per cent of Ukraine's electricity demand is met by nuclear power at present. Six of the 15 nuclear power plants in operation in the country are already supplied with fuel by Westinghouse.
Less than a week and a half ago, Ukraine commissioned a new interim nuclear waste storage facility not far from the former nuclear power plant at Chernobyl, the site of a 1986 disaster, widely considered the biggest civilian nuclear accident in history.
