Energoatom President Yuriy Nedashkovsky says Ukraine has terminated all agreements with Russia on the completion of power units No. 3 and No. 4 at Khmelnytsky nuclear power plant (NPP).
”There was full denunciation on May 12,” Nedashkovsky said at the Energy Congress in Kyiv on May 26.
Nedashkovsky added that the company was looking for new partners in view of a new technical, economic and political basis.
Earlier, on December 9, 2014, the then Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced that the construction of the power units should be completed by 2018. At this, the government`s action program stipulated that the construction should be finished by 2020.
At the same time, the document did not specify the technology to be used during the construction of power units No. 3 and No. 4 at Khmelnytsky NPP.
Russia`s Atomstroyexport, a division of Rosatom, the Russian Federation national nuclear corporation, became the winner of an international tender held in October 2008 to select a nuclear reactor type for Khmelnytsky power units No. 3 and No. 4. U.S. based nuclear power company Westinghouse and South Korean KEPCO also bid in the tender.
Late in 2014, Energoatom`s head said that Ukraine might terminate the agreement with Russia due to the fact that the latter had not made any progress in implementing the project. In mid-September 2015, Ukraine`s parliament terminate that agreement. It was expected that Czech engineering company Skoda JS would replace the Russian contractor to supply equipment to Khmelnytsky NPP.
Meanwhile, in January 2016, the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry appealed to state companies Energoatom and Ukrenergo to assess the feasibility of the construction of the two new power units at Khmelnytsky NPP.
The ministry sees risks for the use of existing building structures, which requires additional independent examination in terms of their durability and compliance with the operational safety of nuclear installations.
In addition, according to the ministry, involving the Czech company in the construction also carries risks, as the company`s owner is a legal entity registered in the Russian Federation.
