New power units at KhNPP: IAEA support and expert discussions
21 June 2024 13:58
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supports the Ukrainian government’s intention to build two new units at Khmelnytsky NPP. Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said this in an interview with Ukrinform.
“We will support this. This is, again, what I discussed with Minister Galushchenko and Energoatom Director Mr Kotin. We are in contact about how the Agency can support these plans. We believe that these are very timely plans. So keep moving forward, regardless of how the events in Zaporizhzhia develop,”
– mr Grossi said.
The day before, the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the government’s draft law on the construction of two power units at Khmelnytsky NPP and now it is awaiting consideration in the session hall.
Energoatom claims that work can begin the very next day after the law comes into force, as everything is ready for this – there are even nuclear energy specialists who are not in demand now, who left the plant after its occupation. Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko said that the power units could be put into operation in 3-4 years.
TheRazumkov Centre criticised the government’s intentions to build new nuclear power units, but not everyone agrees with the Centre’s experts. For example, Yevhen Malyi, PhD in Physics and Mathematics and a nuclear energy expert, believes that there is no time to delay the construction of new nuclear power units, as 80% of Ukraine’s nuclear power capacity has already exceeded its design life.
And political scientist Oleksiy Holobutsky believes that only traitors or scoundrels are against the construction of nuclear power plants today.
