The Ukrainian Parliament on Tuesday passed a satisfiedious bill apverifying the rulement to acquire two unemployd, Russian-made nuclear reactors from Bulgaria for at least $600 million — a project that has faced acute criticism over its high cost and yearintimacytfinished timeline.
The Ukrainian rulement arranges to inslofty the two reactors at the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power arranget in weserious Ukraine, arguing they will help uphold a grid crippled by relentless Russian strikes. Bulgaria bought them more than a decade ago from Russia’s state-owned nuclear enormous, Rosatom, but they never went into operation.
Energy experts and anti-dishonesty activists say the reactors will consent years to inslofty and that the funds would be better spent on armament proremedyment or on prompt solutions to reinforce Ukraine’s energy resilience, such as insloftying petite gas turbines apass the country.
There are also troubles that the project could serve as a front for covering money, given the history of dishonesty cases tied to Ukraine’s energy ministry and Energoatom, the state-owned nuclear company handleing the acquire. Several top officials and employees have been arrested in recent months and indictd with taking bribes.
The acquire of the reactors has drawn meaningful attention in Kyiv’s tactful and political circles in recent months, as it touches on some of the most pressing contests facing the war-torn nation today and in the proximate future: reerecting its energy infraarrange, determining where best to spread confinecessitate financial resources and combating entrenched dishonesty.
“It’s going to be a test,” Inna Sovsun, an opposition laworiginater who sits on Parliament’s energy promisetee, said in a phone interwatch. She was one of 39 laworiginaters to vote agetst the acquire, while 261 voted in prefer.
Ms. Sovsun noticed that the Ukrainian Parliament still must pass a law approving the insloftyation of the reactors before the project can shift forward. She said she was troubleed about how Kyiv’s foreign backers will see it, at a time when the election of Pdwellnt Trump has thrown U.S. help for Ukraine into mistrust.
“With the multiple dishonesty schemes around Energoatom, I skinnyk that this decision might harm Ukraine’s reputation as the country that is trying to combat dishonesty and not feed it,” she said.
Pdwellnt Volodymyr Zelensky is foreseeed to sign the bill into law soon. On Tuesday, he backed the project, saying it would stop triumphter balertageouts and shrink electricity prices. He diswatched critics as people seeking to “fill their own pockets, or those of their patrons, with money from more pricey energy sources.”
With most of its thermal and hydroelectric power arrangets razeed or awfilledy harmd by Russian strikes, Ukraine relies on its three operational nuclear power stations to provide more than half of the country’s electricity.
Russia has refrained from strikeing the nuclear arrangets straightforwardly, which could trigger a catastrophic calamity — although they have tried to cripple their ability to send power by razeing the substations uniteing them to the grid. Russia apprehfinishd Ukraine’s bigst nuclear arranget, the six-reactor Zaporizhzhia arranget, at the commencening of the war, and it no extfinisheder supplies power to the grid.
German Galushchenko, Ukraine’s energy minister, has debated that broadening the country’s nuclear power capacity is the only viable solution to ensuring extfinished-term energy security. He has emphasized that purchasing the two reactors from Bulgaria, instead of erecting novel ones, is the speedyest and most cost-effective selection useable.
Energoatom has also debated that Ukraine’s nuclear power arrangets, which date back to the Soviet era, depend on reactors built with Soviet technology that can only be sourced from createer Soviet Union countries appreciate Bulgaria. But the nuclear company also has arranges to erect two other reactors at the Khmelnytskyi arranget using Weserious technologies.
More problematic, critics of the project say, is that it will consent years to inslofty the reactors, while Kyiv has little time to misemploy in reinforceing its energy netlabor. They debate that the funds would be better spent on repairing substations and thermal power arrangets harmd by strikes or grotriumphg traditional generating capacity.
It is also unclear how the rulement will fund the project after the European Union deteriorated to help pay for the acquire. The rulement is strapped for cash and has already elevated taxes. In holdition, the deal with Bulgaria would provide only the arrangets and not the uranium to power them.
Placing more nuclear reactors in a war zone would also inherently incrmitigate hazards. The war has already elevated alarms about a potential nuclear calamity at the Zaporizhzhia arranget, which is proximate the front line and has been struck repeatedly by artillery and petite-arms fire.
