2024-04-29 04:56:25
Ukraine has begun building two U.S.-made reactors at a nuclear power plant in the country’s west, as its energy grid comes under devastating attack from Russia.
Workers at the Khmelniski power plant on Thursday poured the first cubic meter of concrete for the reactors, which will use American technology and fuel, a symbolic act performed with Ukrainian and American flags fluttering in the wind.
The project aims to improve Ukraine’s energy security and reduce its dependence on Russian nuclear technology.
Among the guests at the ceremony were the president of the Ukrainian operator Energoatom, Petro Kotin, the Minister of Energy, German Galushshenko and the American ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink.
For security reasons Energoatom asked journalists to wait until Saturday to make this launch public.
The ceremony came hours after a Russian attack destroyed a power plant near kyiv.
“This is our response to the terrorists, our response to the invaders,” Galushshenko said.
“Today we are talking about the future, about stability,” he stressed, calling the development of the Khmelniski power plant the largest modernization project in Ukraine since World War II.
In January, Ukraine announced plans for the upcoming construction of new reactors to compensate for the loss of the Zaporizhia power plant, Europe’s largest, occupied by Russian forces since March 2022.
Ukraine gets almost half of its energy from nuclear power. The reactors it currently uses are of Soviet design, but it converted them to American fuel.
The Khmelniski plant already has two reactors in operation, and two others are partially built according to Soviet design.
Those whose construction began this week, reactors 5 and 6, use the technology of the AP1000 reactor, from the American company Westinghouse.
Each of the units will have a capacity of more than 1,100 megawatts.
With six reactors in operation, Khmelniski will become the largest power plant in Europe, surpassing Zaporizhzhia, Kotin said.
Energoatom and Westinghouse did not indicate when the reactors would be operational.