Ukraine says it started building first US-designed nuclear reactor

Ukraine has started construction work on two US-designed reactors at a nuclear power plant in the west of the country.

The reactors, which will use US technology and fuel, are aimed at reducing Ukraine’s dependence on Russian nuclear technology, Ukrainian authorities said.

Workers at Khmelnytskyi nuclear power station poured a symbolic cubic meter of concrete for the reactors, during a ceremony on Thursday.

Addressing the ceremony, Petro Kotin, the head of Ukraine's state nuclear operator, Energoatom said, "This is our answer to the terrorists, this is our answer to the invaders.”

"Today we are talking about the future, we are talking about stability, we are talking about the development of nuclear energy.”

According to Kotin, the project is Ukraine's most significant modernization project since World War II.

Khmelnytskyi power plant already has two functioning reactors. Its reactors 3 and 4 are partially built to a Soviet design.

The ceremony was for unbuilt reactors 5 and 6, which will be built using Westinghouse's TAP1000 technology.

The units will be "the most advanced nuclear reactor operating today in the world," according to the CEO of US nuclear energy company Westinghouse, Patrick Fragman. 

EnergoAtom and Westinghouse did not say exactly when the reactors will come online.

According to Energoatom, the construction of one reactor unit in peacetime takes five years and the estimated cost starts from $ five billion.

The US Exim Bank will partly finance the project.

Ukraine's current reactors are of Soviet design, but it has shifted them to US fuel.

According to the Energoatom chief, with all six reactors on stream, Khmelnytskyi will become Europe's largest plant, topping Zaporizhzhia -- the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP).

Risk of Zaporizhzhya becoming a new Chernobyl must be averted

The risk of Zaporizhzhya becoming a new Chernobyl must be averted and a free zone around the Russian-held nuclear plant should be declared.

Russian forces seized Zaporizhzhia power plant in southern Ukraine soon after Moscow launched its “special military operation” in Ukraine in February 2022.

Ever since, the plant has come under attack by Ukrainian forces at times, including in August 2022 when shelling blew holes in the roof of a storage unit.

Russia described Kiev’s shelling of the facility as “nuclear terrorism.”

In an overnight Ukrainian attack on a residential quarter in Zaporizhzhia region, at least 10 people -- including women and children -- were killed and more than 20 injured, Russian media reported Saturday.

The attack also damaged the gas supply system, leaving nine residential buildings and 25 private houses without access to the fuel.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), warned that attacks on and around the nuclear power plant “significantly increase the risk of a major nuclear accident.”

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