Nuclear power in Ukraine

Ukrainian coin commemorating nuclear power

Ukraine operates four nuclear power plants with 15 reactors.^[1] In 2016 Ukraine's installed capacity of its nuclear reactors ranked seventh in the world.^[1]

In 2014, nuclear power supplied 49.4% of Ukraine's electricity production of 168 billion kWh. The total installed capacity of nuclear reactors in Ukraine was over 13 GWe.^[2]

Ukraine is one of Europe’s largest energy consumers, it consumes almost twice the energy of Germany, per unit of GDP.^[3] A large share of energy supply in Ukraine comes from nuclear power. Energoatom, a Ukrainian state enterprise, operates all four active nuclear power stations in Ukraine.^[4]

Overview

Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant is Europe's largest with six reactors whose total capacity is 6 GW^[1]

Khmelnizka NPP

Rivne NPP

Ukraine used to receive its nuclear fuel exclusively from Russia by the Russian company TVEL. Since 2008 the country also gets nuclear fuel from Westinghouse.^[5] Since 2014 Westinghouse's share of imports grew to more than 30% in 2016.^[1] Oil and natural gas provide the remainder of the country's energy; these are also imported from the former Soviet Union.

Ukraine is relies to a large extent on nuclear energy. 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.^[6] Ukraine's power sector is the twelfth-largest in the world in terms of installed capacity, with 54 gigawatts (GW).^[3] Renewable energy still plays a very modest role in electrical output; in 2005 energy production was met by the following sources: nuclear (47 percent), thermal (45 percent), hydroelectric and other (8 percent).^[6]

Chornobyl AES

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. 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).^[7] 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.^[8]

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.^[9] In 2015 some government agencies made corruption allegations against Energoatom, with concerns raised by Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.^[10] 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.^[11] In June 2016 its bank accounts were unfrozen.^[12]

Uranium mining

In 2005 there were 17 deposits on the state balance account.^[13] Three of them Vatutine, Central, and Michurinske were being developed, while at the Novokostiantyniv was being built an ore enrichment factory.^[13] Number of deposits are exhausted (i.e. Devladove, Zhovtorichenske, Pershotravneve, Bratske).^[14][13]

List of reactors

All of Ukraine's RBMK reactors (the type involved in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear 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.^[1] 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.

Chernobyl

Chyhyryn

Crimea

Kharkiv

Khmelnytskyi

Odessa

Rivne

South Ukraine

Zaporizhia

Nuclear power plants in Ukraine (view)
 Active plants
 Closed plants
 Unfinished plants

Active plants with power generating capabilities

Research reactors

Unfinished and closed plants

See also

• Energoatom (Ukraine)
• Nuclear energy policy in general
• Electricity sector in Ukraine
• List of power stations in Ukraine
• List of Chernobyl-related articles

References

External links

• World-nuclear.org
• Nuclear Power Reactors

News media

• ЧАЕС — нагадування чи спогади? /Кореспондент/
• Чорнобиль — Захід: умов більше, допомоги менше