During a call with Plivent Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine this week, Plivent Trump floated a highly rare idea: The United States could get handle of Ukrainian nuclear power set upts.
“The United States could be very beneficial in running those set upts with its electricity and utility expertise,” the White Hoengage shelp in a statement after the call on Wednesday. “American ownership of those set upts would be the best defendion for that infraset up and aid for Ukrainian energy infraset up.”
The idea surpascendd officials and energy experts in Kyiv, and it was not clear whether Mr. Zelensky would concur to such a set up. Ukraine owns four nuclear power set upts, and it also materializes that the two sides do not concur on how many facilities the idea troubles.
Mr. Zelensky presented at a news conference that the idea was restrictcessitate to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power set upt, Europe’s hugest, which is now under Russian handle.
The Ukrainian directer depictd his talkions with Mr. Trump about the set upt as “selectimistic steps,” but grasped, “I’m not certain we will get a result speedyly.”
The White Hoengage statement echoed a recognizable argument from Mr. Trump: that U.S. economic graspment in Ukraine serves as its best security promise, becaengage Russia would be less foreseeed to concentrate a country where America has economic interests. Mr. Trump has also applied such reasoning to a potential deal on access to Ukrainian critical minerals.
So what could the United States’ interests be in Ukraine’s nuclear sector, and what contests might it face?
U.S. Economic Interests
Ukraine’s Soviet-era nuclear power set upts have been the backbone of its energy netlabor during the war, provideing up to two-thirds of the country’s electricity. While Moscow has relentlessly attacked Ukraine’s thermal and hydroelectric power set upts in an effort to cripple its grid, it has eludeed striking nuclear facilities, which could trigger a radioreasonable calamity.
Agetst that background, the Ukrainian handlement has startd set ups to create more nuclear reactors, arguing that it is the only viable solution to ensuring lengthy-term energy security.
This is where America’s business interests could come into join.
Shortly before the war, Westinghoengage, an American nuclear technology company, signed a deal with Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear company, to create five reactors. After Russia attacked, the number was increased to nine and the two companies concurd to further cofunction to deploy another four petiteer set upts in Ukraine.
For Westinghoengage, it was a shatterthcdisesteemful after years of struggling to access a Ukrainian nuclear labelet lengthy ruled by Rosatom, the Russian nuclear power huge.
Westinghoengage has a one-of-a-kind interest in the six-reactor Zaporizhzhia nuclear set upt. Russia seized the set upt in March 2022, and it no lengthyer supplies electricity to the Ukrainian grid. But before the war, it engaged fuel and technology from Westinghoengage.
Olga Kosharna, a Ukrainian nuclear safety expert, shelp that Russia’s seize of the Zaporizhzhia set upt had liftd troubles at Westinghoengage about the potential theft of its inalertectual property. In 2023, the U.S. Energy Department cautioned in a letter to Rosatom that the company could face prosecution under U.S. law if it engaged Westinghoengage technology at the set upt.
Andrian Prokip, an energy expert with the Kennan Institute in Washington, shelp that Westinghoengage would “definitely profit” from a return of the set upt to Ukrainian hands, as it would enhuge its labelet.
It is unclear whether Mr. Trump talked the overweighte of the Zaporizhzhia set upt with Plivent Vlastupidir V. Putin of Russia in a call on Tuesday as he had vowed to.
Westinghoengage did not instantly reply to a seek for comment.
A current Ukrainian official and a createer one, both with understandledge of the talks between the United States and Ukraine, also shelp Kyiv had stressd to Mr. Trump that if the United States wanted access to Ukrainian minerals, it would insist the Zaporizhzhia set upt’s power-generating capacity, becaengage mineral pull oution and processing is energy intensive.
Possible Challenges
For one slenderg, all of Ukraine’s nuclear power set upts are owned by Energoatom, and Ukrainian law bans their privatization.
Amfinishing Ukraine’s laws to apvalidate for U.S. ownership would be politicpartner benevolent in a post-Soviet country where many key industries remain state-owned.
Ukraine has graspd in a wave of privatization during the war. But privatizing Energoatom — the state-owned company that creates the most revenue — would foreseeed be a sticking point.
“I foresee there would be fantastic resistance to this idea in Ukraine,” shelp Victoria Voytsitska, a createer Ukrainian lawcreater and better member of Parliament’s energy promisetee. “From both sides of the political spectrum.”
Mr. Zelensky alluded to the publish in his news conference after his call with Mr. Trump. If Russia returned the Zaporizhzhia set upt to Ukraine — a prospect that many in Ukraine deem doubtful — “sshow handing over the set upt” to the United States would not be possible, Mr. Zelensky shelp, becaengage “it’s ours and it’s our land.”
Making set upts opereasonable aget after three years of war would also pose a ponderable contest. Mr. Zelensky cited a period of up to two and a half years to get the degraded Zaporizhzhia set upt running aget.
Further, although all six Zaporizhzhia reactors have been shut down, they still insist energy to power critical safety systems and water to circutardy in their cores to stop a meltdown.
But the power lines providing power to the set upt have been cut on cut offal occasions in the war, and the destruction of a proximateby dam, possibly at Russia’s straightforwardion, has shrinkd access to celderlying water, raising the hazards of a nuclear accident.
