Ukraine hopes to start installing nuclear reactors from Bulgaria in June

General Electric Co

22/03/2024 12:30

By Pavel Polityuk
       KYIV, March 22 (Reuters) - Ukraine hopes to sign a deal
in June to buy two nuclear reactors from Bulgaria as it seeks to
compensate for the loss of its vast Russian-occupied six-reactor
Zaporizhzhia plant, the head of nuclear firm Energoatom told
Reuters.
    The new reactors will be built at the Khmelnytskyi nuclear
power plant in western Ukraine and equipped with
Russian-designed equipment that Kyiv wants to import from
Bulgaria, Petro Kotin said in an interview.
    Russia gained control of the Zaporizhzhia station, Europe's
largest nuclear plant, after launching its invasion of Ukraine
in February 2022. Zaporizhzhia's six nuclear reactors are now
idled.
    "Negotiations between the government of Ukraine and Bulgaria
continue... and I think that somewhere in June we will have the
result of concluding contracts with Bulgaria for the purchase of
this equipment," Kotin said in the interview, conducted late on
Thursday. 
    "I set (the) task before our construction organisation and
Khmelnytskyi station to have it ready to be installed by June,"
he said, referring to the first of the two reactors which would
be ready for installation straight away. 
    He said if it is delivered on time and in full Energoatom
would be ready to begin start-up work on the new reactor in two
to three years, a period which is also needed to manufacture the
turbine for the unit. Energoatom is in preliminary talks for
General Electric  GE.N  to build the turbine, he said.
    The second reactor would be installed later and Kotin did
not give a timeframe.
    He said Bulgaria had previously put the price of the two
reactors at $600 million, but that Sofia was keen to increase
the price of the equipment, which other than Bulgaria can only
be bought from Russia.
    "There is a constant desire on the Bulgarian side to achieve
greater benefits for themselves than this $600 million and the
more time passes the higher prices they voice, but we are still
focused on the price of $600 million," Kotin said.
    He said Energoatom also intended to build two more reactors
at Khmelnytskyi based on the American AP-1000 reactor, and that
the company would start pouring concrete for the two new units
in early April.
    
    'RUSSIA WON'T GET IT UP AND RUNNING'
    Since the loss of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine relies on nuclear
power from three operating plants in the country, totalling nine
reactors, including two reactors currently in operation at the
Khmelnytskyi plant.
    Kotin said Ukraine had not abandoned plans to restart the
Zaporizhzhia power plant one day and that, unlike Russia, it
would be able and know how to get the plant back online.
    "They (Russia) are still saying they will restart the plant,
but they can't technically start it up because there are no
electrical lines, no water and no personnel," Kotin said, adding
that Moscow did not want to recognise that at a political level.
    On the battlefield, however, Ukrainian troops are themselves
on the backfoot after trying to mount a counteroffensive last
year that proved unable to piece Russian defensive lines in the
Zaporizhzhia region. 
    Kotin said that Energoatom, which retained the staff that
operated Zaporizhzhia, would be ready to restart the plant after
its "de-occupation" and that it already had trained special
teams to do so.
    After the Kakhovka dam was blown up, the station lost a
steady inflow of water from the Dnipro River necessary for the
power units, and so far the plant has only a small supply in a
pond near the facility.
    Kotin said in current conditions only one reactor can work
for no more than one month and then must be switched off due to
a lack of water for its cooling system.
    He noted that to restart the station, either the destroyed
Kakhovka dam must be rebuilt or pumps must be built to supply
water from the Dnipro.
    "(It takes) somewhere around two years, but that is about
the main costly measures. During this time it will be possible
to check all systems and if there is no sabotage, all other
systems will be ready for start-up."

 (Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Tom Balmforth and
Susan Fenton)
 ((pavel.polityuk@tr.com; +380 44 2449150; Reuters Messaging:
pavel.polityuk.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))