Ukraine begins work on its first US AP1000 nuclear unit

Ukraine’s Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant will be expanded with two AP1000 units supplied by US company Westinghouse. At an official ceremony, representatives of both sides launched preparatory work for construction of the plant’s Unit 5, with an installed capacity of 1250 MW. The Khmelnytskyi plant has two VVER-1000 units in operation, while two others have been at various stages of completion since the 1980s. Westinghouse has also supplied nuclear fuel for the two Russian-designed units in operation.

Ukraine’s energy company Energoatom announced that it had begun preparatory work for the construction of Units 5 and 6 at the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant. The two new AP1000 units are to be supplied by US company Westinghouse, which plans to build a total of 9 large conventional units in Ukraine under a 2022 memorandum of understanding. As part of the official event, engineers began pouring concrete for a drainage channel and an embankment that will protect the construction site.

“A special feature of the US AP1000 technology is its load-following capability. The enemy is attacking and destroying balancing reserves in Ukraine’s energy sector, so building units with this capability is very important to us. This is a major geopolitical project of shared interest for Ukraine and the United States—we will jointly push the Russians out of the European nuclear market,” said Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko.

Ukraine currently uses exclusively Russian VVER units, and Unit 5 at the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant will be the first US-designed one. In addition to large AP1000 units with an installed capacity of 1250MW, the country also intends to build a number of small modular reactors. These include not only the AP-300 from Westinghouse but also the SMR-300 from another US company, Holtec.

“With this event, we are opening a new chapter in cooperation between Westinghouse and Energoatom. The two units recently commissioned in Georgia, a US state, are identical to the units that will be built here at the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant. Once they are built, Ukraine will have access to clean, affordable energy. The project will also create many jobs in construction, operation, repairs and maintenance,” said Patrick Fragman, chief executive of Westinghouse Electric.

Westinghouse nuclear fuel for VVER units

Ukraine has long cooperated with Westinghouse to diversify nuclear fuel supplies for its Russian-designed VVER-1000 and VVER-440 units. In September last year, Westinghouse delivered its first batch of nuclear fuel for VVER-440 reactors to Ukraine’s Rivne Nuclear Power Plant. Now the company has also announced its first delivery for a VVER-1000 unit at the Khmelnytskyi plant.

“Westinghouse is our reliable strategic partner, both in developing and loading alternative fuel into VVER reactors and in building a nuclear fuel production line in Ukraine, as well as in constructing new units using Westinghouse AP1000 technology. We have not stopped during the war; on the contrary, we have deepened and accelerated our cooperation,” added Energoatom CEO Petro Kotin.