Unfinished Ukranian units suitable for completion

13 May 2008

Existing partially built structures at Ukraine's Khmelnitsky nuclear plant are suitable for completion as part of a project to build two new units at the site, according to preliminary results from a design survey carried out by the Kiev Institute Energoproekt (KIEP). Nikolai Panaschenko, the plant's director, told a meeting of Ukraine's State Nuclear Regulatory Committee that some parts of the buildings had local defects and would need to be dismantled and replaced, but that the structures would be able to be commissioned after the necessary repairs, upgrades and completion of construction work. Ukraine's energy strategy foresees the completion of two units at the site, already home to two Russian-designed VVER-320s, by 2016. The reactor design for the third and fourth units has not been formally selected but in 2007 the science and technology board of state utility Energoatom agreed that it would be "reasonable" to build VVER-1000 pressurized water reactors at the site.