Ukraine to Build 4 New Nuclear Reactors This Year: 2 Will Utilize Western Technology

Ukraine’s power grid has come under significant pressure due to Russia’s attacking forces, and in response the country is slated to crank up its nuclear energy production.

The embattled European state, Knewz.com has learned, will be installing four reactors over the course of the coming summer and fall.

The need for more energy follows Russia’s seizing the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and taking it offline. By: MEGA

Two of the reactors will be based on Russian design and built from Russian equipment imported from Bulgaria, and the other two will be built according to Western specifications.

According to the country’s energy minister, German Galushchenko, all four units will be erected at Khmelnytskyi, where work on two of the complex’s reactors started in the 1980s, but those were halted in favor of ones built at the Zaporizhzhia and Rivne power plants.

“With the 3rd and 4th (Khmelnytskyi units) we want to compensate for Zaporizhzhia, and now we are in the talks with our Bulgarian partners on the two reactors we want to take,” Galushchenko said in an interview with Reuters.

“If we received the reactor vessels today,” he said referring to the reactor pressure vessels required, “I think it would be 2.5 years and we would have a third reactor online.”

He noted that laws have been drafted on the plan but are yet to be passed by the country’s parliament.

Ukraine finds itself in an energy deficit. By: Pexels/KoolShooters

The need for additional power to the Ukrainian grid is highlighted by the Russian occupation of the Zaporizhzhia plant in March 2022.

Most of the facility has since been shut down, depriving Ukraine – which has since been dubbed the “most nuclear-dependent country in the world” by the German Government – of 5,700 megawatts of electricity, per Statista.

Adding to this is the regular harassment of the country’s infrastructure by Russia’s attacking troops.

The most recent assault on Ukraine’s grid was reported on January 2.

Russian winter bombardments left 260,000 people without power in the early days of January 2024. By: MEGA

At the time, one of the affected Ukrainian energy companies, DTEK, released a statement on its Telegram account: “The massive attack of the Russian occupiers resulted in damage to high and medium voltage overhead lines.”

That attack entailed a 100-drone and -missile salvo on the cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv, killing two women and injuring 70. The country was left without the internet.

Another source, MININERGO, pointed out at the time that 260,000 people were left without power as a result of the bombardment.

“Due to massive rocket attacks, power lines were shut down in Kyiv,” the Telegram update read and indicated that the harsh winter conditions did nothing to help the situation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky foresaw the challenges posed by winter and Russian bombardments. By: MEGA

Leading up to the winter season, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned his country that its electrical supply would come under pressure.

He also used the opportunity to address Vladimir Putin and his henchmen, saying that Ukraine would respond in kind if there were any attempts on its power grid.

As a nod to this threat of retaliation, Russia has suffered a slew of fiery incidents at numerous energy facilities.