Nuclear power in Ukraine

Ukraine operates four nuclear power plants with 15 reactors located in Volhynia and South Ukraine. The total installed nuclear power capacity is over 13 GWe, ranking 7th in the world in 2020. Energoatom, a Ukrainian state enterprise, operates all four active nuclear power stations in Ukraine. In 2019, nuclear power supplied over 20% of Ukraine's energy.

In 2021, Ukraine's nuclear reactors produced 81 TWh — over 55% of its total electricity generation, and the second-highest share in the world, behind only France. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, is in Ukraine.

The 1986 Chernobyl disaster in northern Ukraine was the world's most severe nuclear accident to date.

Lack of coal for Ukraine's coal-fired power stations due to the war in Donbas and a shut down of one of the six reactors of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant led to rolling blackouts throughout the country in December 2014. Due to the Russo-Ukrainian War, the nuclear power plant has been damaged.

Overview


Ukraine relies to a large extent on nuclear power. The largest nuclear power plant in Europe, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, is located in Ukraine. In 2006, the government planned to build 11 new reactors by the year 2030, which would almost double the current amount of nuclear power capacity. Ukraine's power sector is the twelfth-largest in the world in terms of installed capacity, with 54 gigawatts (GW). Renewable energy still plays a very modest role in electrical output; in 2005 energy production was met by the following sources: nuclear (47%), thermal (45%), hydroelectric and other (8%).

History of Soviet origin
In 1928, on the initiative of academician Abram Ioffe, the Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology was established. On October 10, 1932, an atomic nucleus was split for the first time in the USSR at the institute.

In 1937-38, during the Great Terror, 11 employees of the institute were arrested and 5 of them were shot (UPTI Affair).

In 1940, UIPT employees Friedrich Lange, Volodymyr Spinel, and Viktor Maslov submitted applications for the invention of a nuclear bomb, as well as methods of producing uranium-235: "On the use of uranium as an explosive and poisonous substance", "A method of preparing a uranium mixture enriched with uranium-235 . Multidimensional centrifuge" and "Thermocirculation centrifuge". For the first time, an explosion scheme was proposed, which later became accepted, using conventional explosives to create a critical mass with subsequent initiation of a chain reaction. Centrifugal method of separation of uranium isotopes also began to be used in industry.


 * KIPT nuclear bomb project of 1940

Immediately after the Second World War, laboratory No. 1 of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR was organized within the institute, which took an active part in the development of the Soviet nuclear bomb.

In the second half of the 20th century, UIPT was actively engaged in nuclear energy of the USSR, introducing new technologies and equipment into the industry.

The first industrial research nuclear reactor in Ukraine, VVR-M, with a capacity of 10 MW, was built in 1960 in Kyiv, and later in 1970 was transferred to the newly established Institute of Nuclear Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The second 200 kW DR-100 research reactor was built at the Sevastopol National University of Nuclear Energy and Industry in 1967.

The 1970s was a time of rapid expansion of industry with several big nuclear plants planned, as Ivano-Frankivsk NPP, Zakarpattia NPP, Slavhorod NPP, Kherson NPP, Novoazovsk NPEC, Kyiv NPEC, and others that were actually built or started as Kharkiv, Chyhyryn, Odesa, Krym.

1977 was the year of birth of the Ukrainian industrial nuclear power industry. The first power unit of the Chornobyl NPP with the RBMK-1000 reactor (1000 MW) was put into industrial operation. The growing need for electricity, the desire to replace thermal and hydroelectric power plants with more powerful nuclear ones, contributed to their rapid construction. At the time of the man-made accident at Unit 4 of the Chornobyl NPP (April 1986), 10 power units were in operation in Ukraine, 8 of which had a capacity of 1,000 MW.

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, which spread over much of Western USSR and Europe. It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other being the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster). The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles, crippling the Soviet economy.

Ukraine used to receive its nuclear fuel exclusively from Russia by the Russian company TVEL. From 2008 onward, the country also got nuclear fuel from Westinghouse. Since 2014 Westinghouse's share of imports grew to more than 30% in 2016 due to strong social disapproval of any economic relations with Russia after the annexation of Crimea. In 2018, Westinghouse's contract to supply VVER fuel was extended to 2025. Oil and natural gas provide the remainder of the country's energy; these are also imported from the former Soviet Union.

Recent renewal and transformation
In 2011 Energoatom began a project to bring safety into line with international standards at an estimated cost of $1.8 billion, with a target completion date of 2017. In 2015 the completion date was put back to 2020, due to financing delays. In 2015 some government agencies made corruption allegations against Energoatom, with concerns raised by Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. In March 2016, Energoatom's assets and bank accounts were frozen by Ukrainian courts over allegedly unpaid debts; Energoatom appealed the decision, but the frozen finances led to contractual breaches. In June 2016 its bank accounts were unfrozen.

On May 27, 2013, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the Neutron Source project. In 2014, the implementation of the project for the construction of the "Neutron Source" nuclear power plant entered the final stage - all construction work has been completed on the site of the installation, installation is being carried out, commissioning work is being carried out with the main equipment, and preparations are underway for the final stage of putting the installation into operation.

In February 2018 Ukraine secured $250 million of U.S. funding to build a spent nuclear fuel storage facility, which will avoid the need to ship spent nuclear fuel to Russia.

In 2018 Energoatom stated that electricity prices were too low to cover the cost of new nuclear fuel, and called for a price increase.

In 2008 Westinghouse Electric Company won a five-year contract to supply nuclear fuel to three Ukrainian reactors starting in 2011. Following Euromaidan, then President Viktor Yanukovych introduced a ban on Rosatom nuclear fuel shipments to Europe via Ukraine, which was in effect from 28 January until 6 March 2014. By 2016, Russia's share was down to 55 percent, Westinghouse supplying nuclear fuel for six of Ukraine's VVER-1000 nuclear reactors. After the Russian annexation of Crimea in April 2014, Energoatom and Westinghouse extended the contract for fuel deliveries through 2020.

In 2019 Energoatom and Turboatom signed a five-year contract to modernize condensers and turbines at a number of Ukrainian nuclear power plants.

On 4 December 2019, Ukraine's government appointed Pavlo Pavlyshyn as acting head of Energoatom. In January 2020, Energoatom discussed eight legislative bills with the chairperson of the Ukrainian parliament subcommittee on nuclear energy and safety, aimed at meeting international obligations and standards, and the financial stabilization of Energoatom.

In August 2021 Energoatom and Westinghouse signed a contract for construction of 2 Westinghouse AP1000 reactors as blocks 5 and 6 at the Khmelnitskyi nuclear power plant. Unit 3 and 4 will be completed with the VVER-1000 design. Workers from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant that have fled the area are now working on units 3 and 4.

On October 6, 2021, the loading of 37 fuel assemblies was completed and the physical start-up of the Neutron Source nuclear subcritical installation was carried out.

2022
On 24 February 2022, the Ukrainian electricity grid disconnected from the post-Soviet IPS/UPS grid, ahead of synchronizing with the Synchronous grid of Continental Europe which was achieved on March 16.

In March 2022, Russian forces seized control of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. It continues to operate and supply data, including from a remote monitoring system, to the International Atomic Energy Agency. On 6 June, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said "at least five of the seven indispensable pillars of nuclear safety and security have been compromised" in Russia's occupation of the plant, and after attacks in August, that all seven had been breached. Because of the 2022 Russian war against Ukraine, the nuclear power plant has been damaged.

2024
In April 2024, the government approved the completion of units №3 and №4 of Khmelnitsky NPP, as well as the construction of new units No. 5 and No. 6 using American technology AP1000 has begun, and the cost of construction of the general block will be approximately $5 billion. On May 7, 2024, it was announced that the preparatory works for the construction of 2 new units No. 4 and No. 5 on South Ukraine NPP.

Production of nuclear fuel
The issue of lifting the Russian monopoly on the supply of fresh nuclear fuel to Ukraine was raised back in 1998.

At the end of 2018, the thousandth Westinghouse (USA) fuel assembly should arrive at the South Ukrainian NPP. From 2022, the Rivne NPP will switch to assemblies from Westinghouse, a batch of 42 cassettes with nuclear fuel from the American company Westinghouse has already arrived. Assemblies with American fuel are planned to be loaded into the reactor core of power unit No. 3 of the RANP in 2022. From 2023, the power unit should start operating entirely on American fuel.

As of 2018, Westinghouse nuclear fuel is used in 6 power units of Ukrainian nuclear power plants. After 2021, it will be used in 7 out of 15 Ukrainian nuclear power units. The power unit of the Rivne NPP will be transferred to American assemblies. Also, the production of components (heads and shanks) for Westinghouse fuel cartridges will be launched at the facilities of the Ukrainian enterprise "Atomenergomash".

The shipment of the thousandth assembly of Westinghouse fuel to the Ukrainian NPP is a significant event in the long-term cooperation between Energoatom and Westinghouse, because the successful implementation of the new energy strategy until 2035 is impossible without diversification of the supply of nuclear fuel. In the current situation, there is a gradual curtailment of the nuclear fuel supply diversification program. The production of its own nuclear fuel in Ukraine, despite the reserves of raw materials, is currently not established.

In the fall of 2019, the intention to build a nuclear fuel fabrication plant near the South Ukrainian NPP was announced.

In 2023, Energoatom became the first company in the world to implement with Westinghouse a project to replace Russian fuel for VVER-440 reactors, in addition to the previously implemented replacement of Russian fuel for VVER-1000.

Uranium mining
In 2005 there were 17 deposits on the state balance account. Three of them Vatutine, Central, and Michurinske were being developed, while an ore enrichment factory was being built at Novokostiantyniv. Number of deposits are exhausted (i.e. Devladove, Zhovtorichenske, Pershotravneve, Bratske).

Activists have been long alerting about Dnipro Chemical Plant in Kamianske, which is a Soviet-times military uranium processing facility that consists of industrial buildings, equipment containing uranium waste as well as large landfills where tailings were stored. Small scale soil, water and dust leaks have been documented from the facility, but apart from securing the perimeter not much has been done to properly secure the plant.

List of reactors
All of Ukraine's RBMK reactors (the type involved in the 1986 Chernobyl disaster) were located at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. All of the reactors there have been shut down, leaving only the much safer VVER reactors operating in the country. Three of the reactors listed were built in post-independence Ukraine, with the first one of these being constructed in 1995; the other sixteen reactors the country inherited from the Soviet Union.

Reactor engineering
The American company Holtec chose Ukraine as a place for the construction of a new enterprise for the production of small nuclear reactors.

On June 10, 2019, a Partnership Agreement was signed between Energoatom, the National Research Center for Nuclear Power and Nuclear Energy, and Holtec International at the Holtec International headquarters in Camden (New Jersey, USA). The document was signed by the heads of the companies — Yurii Nedashkovskyi, Ihor Shevchenko and Chris Singh. The signed tripartite agreement provides for the creation of an international consortium, the purpose of which is to promote the implementation of SMR-160 small modular reactor (SMR) technology in Ukraine.

On April 17, 2024, Energoatom and the Holtec International announced the creation of production of components for small modular reactors in Ukraine.

Waste disposal
In July 2019, a plant for the processing of liquid radioactive waste began operating at the industrial site of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, which processed almost 3 tons of waste during the first week of operation. The plant processes liquid radioactive waste, which during the technological process is cemented and transformed into safer for storage and disposal.

At the moment, the plant has processed 34 "packages", which, after exposure and radiation control, will be directed to burial in a special near-surface storage of solid radioactive waste. Gradually, the plant should start processing 42 packages - barrels with a capacity of 200 liters - per day. Assuming uninterrupted plant operation for all 250 working days, this is 10.5 thousand packages per year.

The construction of the plant for the processing of liquid radioactive waste was approved back in 2001, but the completion of construction and complex tests took place only in 2014.

Centralized storage
Since 2001, negotiations have been held between Energoatom, the Ukrainian authorities and foreign companies regarding the construction of a Centralized Storage Facility for spent nuclear fuel in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

On January 24, 2022, Energoatom completed the two-month stand-alone tests of the CNFS systems in cold mode. Comprehensive cold tests were conducted from January 26 to February 4, 2022.

On April 25, 2022, the State Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine issued a permit to SE "NAEK "Energoatom"" to carry out activities, which was expected as early as March 9, but was postponed due to Russian aggression and the presence of occupying troops in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.