South Ukrainian NPP plans to build powerful American power units

The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine has announced the start of a public discussion of the planned activities of Energoatom JSC regarding the construction of power units 4 and 5 at the South Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant.

According to the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, such activities are subject to the environmental impact assessment procedure, which was published on December 19, 2024 in the Unified Register of Environmental Impact Assessment.

The project envisages the construction of two new power units outside the existing protective perimeter of the South Ukrainian NPP. The power units are to be equipped with AR 1000 type reactors with a water-water double-circuit reactor operating on pressurized water. The reactors manufactured by Westinghouse have a design electric capacity of 1.1 GW each.

The environmental impact assessment procedure is carried out through theEcoSystem online platform. The public discussion will last 12 working days. It is aimed at determining the scope of necessary research and the level of detail of information to be included in the environmental impact assessment report.

Detailed information on the project is available on the EcoSystem platform in the environmental impact assessment section after registration. Suggestions and comments from the public are accepted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine. They can be sent to the ministry's address in Kyiv or via the e-mail specified in the notification.

Recently, it became known that the South Ukrainian NPP decided to extend the lifetime of the second power unit. According to international standards, there is no clear term for the power unit's operation; it is decided after inspections.

Meanwhile, a two-billion-dollar tender for construction at the South Ukrainian NPP was awarded to a person involved in criminal cases.

The agreement for construction of the South Ukrainian NPP was concluded without a competitive procedure and with a company with a dubious past. The deal was worth more than UAH 2 billion. In 2022, the company was accused of misappropriating budget funds for services for the South Ukrainian NPP.

This is not the first time thatSouth Ukrainian NPP has been involved in cases of misappropriation of budget funds, embezzlement and abuse of office. In November, the High Anti-Corruption Court scheduled a hearing on the misappropriation of UAH 12.3 million in the case of the nuclear power plant's executives.

In September, the Antimonopoly Committee uncovered collusion in a public tender and fined the bidders. The tender was for the purchase of network equipment for a nuclear power plant.

In June, the South Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant concealed prices for materials and conducted the procurement without a specific procedure. Under the terms of the contract, the company must improve the fire safety of the plant's cable systems by December. The prices for imported materials were significantly higher.

Андрій Колісніченко