Ukraine wants to buy two Russian reactors from Bulgaria for the "Khmelnytsky" NPP. However, the decision is facing serious criticism from both deputies and experts. Why? And does Kiev have an alternative?
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has given permission to "Energoatom" to buy two Russian-made nuclear reactors from Bulgaria for the third and fourth units of the "Khmelnytsky" NPP. For the document to come into force, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky must sign it. He will most likely sign it, since he called for the vote on the bill. But the parliamentary decision sparked lively discussions in Ukraine about the advisability of purchasing the reactors and the need for the construction of this nuclear power plant in general.
The Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant has been under construction for decades
The construction of the third and fourth units of the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant was suspended in 1990 after the collapse of the USSR and the moratorium declared by Ukraine on the construction of new reactors. In 2005, the Verkhovna Rada lifted the moratorium and since then the possibility of completing the construction has been discussed repeatedly, but the construction has been stopped several times and has not been completed to this day. According to the state-owned company "Energoatom" 80 percent of the construction work on unit three has been completed, and 25 percent on unit four.
In 2024, the Ukrainian government reached an agreement with Bulgaria on the possibility of purchasing two VVER-1000 reactors supplied by "Rosatom" for the Belene plant - a project that the Bulgarian government ultimately abandoned. The value of the two reactors set by Bulgaria was $600 million, but there is a desire to increase the price, since such equipment outside Bulgaria can only be purchased in Russia.
The two units of the "Khmelnytsky" NPP have over two gigawatts of electricity
Given the scale of the purchase, the Ukrainian government decided to request permission from parliament for this. The deputy from the "Servant of the People" party Andrey Zhupanin, a member of the parliamentary energy committee, noted that thanks to the vote, "Ukraine will be able to conclude an agreement by the end of the deadline for the sale of the reactors set by the Bulgarian parliament." It is valid until March 13.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, pointed out that Ukraine will now be able to complete the two units of the plant. "This is more than two gigawatts of electricity for Ukraine. And to understand - now, during the difficult winter months, we can import approximately the same amount of electricity to Ukraine from our neighbors," he said in a video address. Zelensky called the critics of the Verkhovna Rada's decision people for whom cheap energy in Ukraine is not profitable.
"This money could have been used for the army"
At the same time, some deputies and energy experts criticize both the idea of completing the construction of the power plant's units and the purchase of reactors from Bulgaria. "This is downright surreal! Spending money on Russian reactors during the war," wrote Alexei Goncharenko, a deputy from the "European Solidarity" party, on Telegram. He added that his political force plans to introduce "blocking decrees".
Deputy from the "Voice" faction Yaroslav Zheleznyak called the decision "a big nuclear theft". "This money could have been used for the army," he complains.
The head of the Anti-Corruption Center, Vitaly Shabunin, is also convinced that the money would have been better spent on the purchase of weapons. "If there were fewer weapons, more soldiers would have died. And Zelensky's reactors will be operational in five to ten years at best," he wrote.
The Verkhovna Rada's Anti-Corruption Committee found a potentially risky factor in the draft law, which lies in the opacity of the definition of the proposed type of reactors. More precisely – no analysis was made of the possibility of using other types of reactors for the construction of the units.
Dependence on "Rosatom"
The Ministry of Energy states that the completion of the power units at the "Khmelnytsky" NPP requires a VVER-1000 reactor and "this will be many times cheaper and faster than any construction of a NPP from scratch". But as energy experts tell DV, the reactors from Bulgaria are of the B320 modification. "They have other geometric parameters - they are longer. All this requires additional funds. It is cheaper to build from scratch. Or if you build, do not buy Russian technology", says nuclear energy expert Olga Kosharnaya.
The Director of the Center for Energy Research, Alexander Kharchenko, shares her opinion and points out that Bulgaria does not have all the parts for the reactors. "Some of the equipment is missing. Different experts give different assessments of what is missing. Accordingly, there are also different assessments of whether the missing parts can be manufactured at all without the participation of "Rosatom", he says.
In addition, according to Kharchenko, it is not known how many years it will take to build the units without the participation of "Rosatom", which is the only certified manufacturer of VVER-1000 reactors in the world. "I believe that the engineers of "Energoatom" are capable of doing everything, but how many years will the certification process take?"
DV's interlocutors also note that the reactors from Bulgaria are designed for a different type of fuel, not the one used in Ukrainian nuclear power plants, which is why time will be needed for its development. The American company Westinghouse has already officially confirmed that it will be able to develop the fuel on time. And the Minister of Energy German Galushchenko stressed that Russia will not be involved in the project in any way - neither with fuel nor with service. "Everything will be implemented by Ukrainian and American companies, state and private," he emphasized.
Where will the money for the construction come from?
Galushchenko also claims that the completion of the Khmelnytskyi NPP will not require an increase in tariffs or the provision of funds from the state budget. He did not specify how the financing will be carried out, but Kosharnaya assumes that the funds will come from the accounts of "Energoatom".
However, since there is still no updated technical and economic justification for the completion, it is not known what funds will be needed. The first such justification, made in 2017, recorded the amount of over 76 billion hryvnias ($1.8 billion).
"Now this amount is clearly different - at least 200 billion hryvnias (i.e. at least $4.8 billion). But as experience shows, the initial estimates are always exceeded," notes Kosharnaya, adding that building a power unit from scratch costs at least five billion dollars.
"It is better to invest the money in diversifying production"
According to experts who expressed their opinions to DW, now is not the time to spend money on completing the construction of the power units. "This effectively means that they will be frozen without any positive result for Ukraine for at least four to five years. And if this money is invested in air defense and in the diversification of energy production, this will give a great tactical effect from the point of view of Ukrainian energy", emphasizes Kharchenko. According to him, it would be more effective to build gas power units and thus cover the deficit of generation capacities. "And only then think about the construction of new nuclear power units."
And Kosharnaya believes that now is not the time to develop nuclear energy. "Now there is a need for smaller generating installations - for example, gas and biogas. We lost 80-90 percent of the thermal energy of coal, 40 percent of the hydropower plants, and they provided balance to the system during peaks of consumption. The nuclear power plant is a base capacity, and we have enough of those now in connection with the reduction in consumption," the expert explains.
The bill adopted by the parliament on the permit for the purchase of reactors from Bulgaria does not "force anyone to buy anything", emphasized the chairman of the energy committee of the Verkhovna Rada, Andrey Gerus. "The document gives the right to analyze the situation and, if appropriate, the government to make a decision," says Gerus. The interlocutors of DW hope that the supervisory board of "Energoatom", which includes three independent members and two representatives of the state, will still not agree on the purchase of the reactors from Bulgaria.