Ukraine will push forward with controversial plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on aging Russian-made nuclear reactors despite growing opposition from lawmakers, the country’s energy minister said, amid warnings of a major power crisis this winter.
German Galushchenko told POLITICO that the government still intends to pursue the expansion of the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power station in western Ukraine, buying two VVER-1000 reactors currently in storage in Bulgaria. The proposal has drawn criticism from the ruling party’s own members of Parliament, who say there are quicker ways to help prop up the electricity grid, which has been hit hard by Russian bombing.
“Our energy system is withstanding this pressure first of all thanks to nuclear power,” Galushchenko said. “Taking that into account, we need more generation, even in the recovery and especially after the war. We understand that any kind of nuclear project takes years, so we need to start as quickly as we can, especially in this situation where we have the building constructed and ready.”
Last week, Ukrainian members of Parliament, or MPs, told POLITICO that the government had been forced to acknowledge it did not have sufficient support in the Parliament to pass a draft law legislating for the purchase of the reactors.
