Ukraine and Russia signed Wednesday an agreement on cooperation in construction of two nuclear power reactors at Ukraine's Khmelnytskiy Nuclear Power Plant, the government reported.
The agreement was signed in Kiev by Yuriy Boyko, the Ukrainian energy and fuel minister, and Sergei Kiriyenko, the general director of Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear power corporation. The value of the agreement was not disclosed. Ukraine had been seeking to attract investments worth about $3.83 billion that would be enough to build the two reactors at Khmelnytskiy NPP by the end of 2016.
Kiriyenko and Boyko met Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov to brief him on the project after signing the agreement. Russia will provide the full funding needed for the design, construction and commissioning of the third and fourth nuclear power units at Khmelnytskiy NPP, Kiriyenko said. The developments underscore an increasing cooperation between Russia and Ukraine in the nuclear power sector.
Ukraine produces almost a half of its power from nuclear power plants. EnergoAtom incorporates four nuclear power plants that run 15 nuclear power reactors with total capacity of 13,835 MW. The company produced 36.73 TWh of power in January-May, up 5.2% year-on-year. Khmelnytskiy NPP, which operates two reactors with total capacity of 2,000 MW, increased power output by 20.2% year-on-year to 6.31 TWh in January-May, according to EnergoAtom.