Nuclear power in Ukraine

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Ukrainian coin commemorating nuclear power

Ukraine operates four nuclear power plants with 15 reactors located in Volhynia and South Ukraine.^[1] The total installed nuclear power capacity is over 13 GWe,^[2] ranking seventh in the world in 2016.^[1] Energoatom, a Ukrainian state enterprise, operates all four active nuclear power stations in Ukraine.^[3] In 2014, nuclear power supplied 49.4% of Ukraine's electricity production of 168 TWh.

Overview[]

Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is Europe's largest with six reactors whose total capacity is 6 GW^[1]

Khmelnytskyi NPP

Rivne NPP

Ukraine relies to a large extent on nuclear power. The largest nuclear power plant in Europe, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, is located in Ukraine. In 2006, the government planned to build 11 new reactors by the year 2030, which would almost double the current amount of nuclear power capacity.^[4] Ukraine's power sector is the twelfth-largest in the world in terms of installed capacity, with 54 gigawatts (GW).^[5] Renewable energy still plays a very modest role in electrical output; in 2005 energy production was met by the following sources: nuclear (47 percent), thermal (45 percent), hydroelectric and other (8 percent).^[4]

Chernobyl AES

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, which spread over much of Western USSR and Europe. It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other being the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster).^[6] The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles, crippling the Soviet economy.^[7]

Ukraine used to receive its nuclear fuel exclusively from Russia by the Russian company TVEL. Since 2008 the country also gets nuclear fuel from Westinghouse.^[8] Since 2014 Westinghouse's share of imports grew to more than 30% in 2016 due to strong social disapproval of any economic relations with Russia after Crimea annexation.^[1] In 2018 Westinghouse's contract to supply VVER fuel was extended to 2025.^[9] Oil and natural gas provide the remainder of the country's energy; these are also imported from the former Soviet Union.

In 2011 Energoatom began a project to bring safety into line with international standards at an estimated cost of $1.8 billion, with a target completion date of 2017. In 2015 the completion date was put back to 2020, due to financing delays.^[10] In 2015 some government agencies made corruption allegations against Energoatom, with concerns raised by Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.^[11] In March 2016, Energoatom's assets and bank accounts were frozen by Ukrainian courts over allegedly unpaid debts; Energoatom appealed the decision, but the frozen finances led to contractual breaches.^[12] In June 2016 its bank accounts were unfrozen.^[13]

In February 2018 Ukraine secured $250 million of U.S. funding to build a spent nuclear fuel storage facility, which will avoid the need to ship spent nuclear fuel to Russia.^[14]

In March 2018 Energoatom stated that electricity prices were too low to cover the cost of new nuclear fuel, and called for a price increase.^[15]

In 2019 Energoatom and Turboatom signed a five year contract to modernise condensers and turbines at a number of Ukrainian nuclear power plants.^[16]

On 4 December 2019, Ukraine's government appointed Pavlo Pavlyshyn as acting head of Energoatom. During January 2020 Energoatom discussed eight legislative bills with the chairman of the Ukrainian parliament subcommittee on nuclear energy and safety, aimed at meeting international obligations and standards, and the financial stabilisation of Energoatom.^[17]

In August 2021 Energoatom and Westinghouse signed a contract for construction of Westinghouse AP1000 reactors to replace the unfinished blocks in Khmelnitskyi power plant.^[18]

Uranium mining[]

In 2005 there were 17 deposits on the state balance account.^[19] Three of them Vatutine, Central, and Michurinske were being developed, while an ore enrichment factory was being built at Novokostiantyniv.^[19] Number of deposits are exhausted (i.e. Devladove, Zhovtorichenske, Pershotravneve, Bratske).^[20][19]

Activists have been long alerting about Dnipro Chemical Plant in Kamianske, which is a Soviet-times military uranium processing facility that consists of industrial buildings, equipment containing uranium waste as well as large landfills where tailings were stored. Small scale soil, water and dust leaks have been documented from the facility, but apart from securing the perimeter not much has been done to properly secure the plant.^[21]

List of reactors[]

All of Ukraine's RBMK reactors (the type involved in the 1986 Chernobyl disaster) were located at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. All of the reactors there have been shut down, leaving only the much safer VVER reactors operating in the country.^[1] Three of the reactors listed were built in post-independence Ukraine, with the first one of these being constructed in 1995; the other sixteen reactors the country inherited from the Soviet Union.

Chernobyl

Chyhyryn

Crimea

Kharkiv

Khmelnytskyi

Odesa

Rivne

South Ukraine

Zaporizhzhia

Nuclear power plants in Ukraine (view)
 Active plants
 Closed plants
 Unfinished plants

Active plants with power generating capabilities[]

Research reactors[]

Unfinished and closed plants[]

Chyhyryn NPP (draft)

Anti-nuclear movement[]

Anti-nuclear picket in Kyiv

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Pro-nuclear movement[]

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See also[]

• Energoatom (Ukraine)
• Nuclear energy policy in general
• Electricity sector in Ukraine
• List of power stations in Ukraine
• List of Chernobyl-related articles

References[]

External links[]

• World-nuclear.org
• Nuclear Power Reactors