KYIV (Reuters) - Ukraine expects to start construction work on four new nuclear power reactors this summer or autumn, Energy Minister German Galushchenko told Reuters on Thursday, as the country seeks to compensate for lost energy capacity due to the war with Russia.
Two of the units - which include reactors and related equipment - will be based on Russian-made equipment that Ukraine wants to import from Bulgaria, while the other two will use Western technology from power equipment maker Westinghouse.
All four reactors will be built at the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant in the west of Ukraine, Galushchenko added.
Nuclear is extremely expensive to build and takes a long time, is this truly wise for a country in the middle of an active war?
~10 years IIRC, however maybe they figure that by the time they are up and running that the war will be over and they can gain more indepandance from relying on other countries that may stab them in the front?
But you are right its a costly undertaking while they are also actively asking for aid in a war.With the cost of alternatives like solar plummeting year over year, this seems like a fool hardy investment doubly so during a war
Here’s an interesting article I found on nuclear vs solar
yes, I’m sure pv-magazine-usa.com is going to give a completely unbiased take on nuclear v solar …
If there’s anything you find inaccurate in the article, let’s hear it.
Not OP. Only using the cited article, it says the NPP will last 40-80 years and maintenance will be expensive after 40 years but gives no figures, then says solar would last 50 years and be cheaper to maintain but again gives no figures. These statements may be true but without figures this is nothing more than an oversimplified opinion piece. We’re not going to have a productive discussion with opinion pieces.
It also only includes 16 hours of storage in its calculations, maybe cloudy days arent a thing in Georgia.
it also mentions land rents to owners as a benefit, but doesnt list them as a cost in running solar (or the cost of buying 27000 acres upfront)
Ukraine has experience with nuclear (55% of their current electricity production is from nuclear), they have the largest uranium reserve of Europe and their peak of electricity consumption is in December, when solar production is only 1/5th of summer production.
So for me it make complete sense to build nuclear power stations in Ukraine.
But these nuclear plants will take a decade plus to come online which is extremely uncertain politically. Nuclear is also like 4x the cost of photovoltaic just to get up and running not even including running cost
I think this is s good idea, only for the fact Russia is not allowed to target it. Energy is also always an excellent source of income. On top of all of that if you do nothing during the war your economy will stagnate.
I think the point is it’s much easier to harden NPP against some types of strikes than, say, PV farm
and there’s all that ban on strikes on NPPs which seems to be respected even now
Well, than one PV farm. Decentralization is a point in renewables.
cluster munitions are plentiful and just a few would damage a farm heavily
Or you could use that munition to slightly damage and occupy a nuclear power plant. ;-)
but you have to get there first. rocket with cluster warhead can fly for 100s of kilometers
A plane or helicopter too, though.
one is significantly easier to pull off than the other, that’s my point
Well they either start it now or start it when the war is over. It might take a long time but it will take longer if they wait. Plus they need jobs for a lot of people to stay i imagine so the money will be well spent.
They’re probably still in the planning stages at this point
And where do they get the Uran from? China? Russia?
Ukraine us the #1 producer of Uranium in Europe.
for a country in the middle of an active war?
that was blackmailed with one a few months ago.
By the time the price or risk is prohibitive, there will probably be peace and they will receive a lot of reconstruction aid. They don’t have to worry about the price if they don’t have to pay it.
Reconstruction aid isn’t a donation though, they will have to pay it back over time
At least on paper. I suspect that is too optimistic for a country with so much corruption and of interest to the west, but let’s hope for the best.
I bet they still construct it much faster than the constantly delayed Hinkley Point C in the UK
Interestingly this has been in the works for almost a decade. Lots of good information here
Some good bits:
- Ukraine is heavily dependent on nuclear energy – it has 15 reactors generating about half of its electricity.
- Ukraine had been receiving most of its nuclear services and nuclear fuel from Russia, but is reducing this dependence. In June 2022 an agreement was signed with Westinghouse that will see the company provide all fuel for the Ukrainian fleet.
- In 2021 Westinghouse was contracted to finish building a new reactor at Khmelnitsky using AP1000 components from an aborted US project.
- The government is looking to the West for both technology and investment in its nuclear plants. An agreement to build nine AP1000 reactors at established sites has been signed with Westinghouse.
Seeing as 6 of Ukraine’s largest reactors are under Russian control in Zaporozhye, and that a good chunk of Ukraine’s national revenue comes from the export of electricity to Europe, the need to get more capacity online is apparent.
More energy is good!
