Advanced Reactors of the VVER-1000 (V-392B) type (equivalent to the PWR-type) are proposed.
– By Tom Lamar –
Ukraine's Fuel and Energy Ministry hopes to sign a loan agreement with Russia on financing the construction of Khmelnytsky nuclear power plant's third and fourth reactors by the end of 2010.
However, Deputy Fuel and Energy Minister Natalia Shumkova said that a number of questions remain unsettled.
"We're still at the stage of working with the Finance Ministry of Russia to determine the format of the agreement: what type of the borrowing it will be – commercial or from the budget funds of Russia," she said.
As reported, Ukraine and Russia on June 9, 2010, signed an intergovernmental agreement to cooperation in the completion of the third and fourth reactors of Khmelnytsky NPP. The document foresees that the Russian side will provide financing at the level required to design the facilities and put them into operation.
Russian company CJSC Atomstroyexport won a tender to select the type of reactor to install at Khmelnytsky NPP. The company proposed the use of advanced reactors of the VVER-1000 (V-392B) type (equivalent to the PWR-type). This project was developed for the fifth and sixth power units of Russia's Balakovo nuclear power plant, which are similar to the third and fourth units of Khmelnytsky NPP in terms of readiness. The reactors will be produced by OJSC Izhorskiye Zavody plant in St. Petersburg, Russia.
As Energoatom President Yuriy Nedashkovsky said, the loan agreement will be signed separately.
Energoatom plans to complete and commission the third and fourth reactors of Khmelnytsky NPP before 2018. In particular, the third unit is to be put into operation in 2016, and the fourth in 2017. The costs of the units' completion are estimated at UAH 30.1 billion.
Khmelnytsky NPP, which operates two VVER-1000 reactors built along the lines of the Soviet-type V-320 design, is a division of NJSC Energoatom. The NPP's first unit started work in 1987, and the second in 2004.
Energoatom operates all Ukrainian nuclear power plants in Zaporizhia, Yuzhnoukrainsk, Rivne and Khmelnytsky, which have an overall generating capacity of 13.835 GW.