Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has approved the purchase of Russian equipment for the country’s Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko said on Tuesday afternoon.
Honcharenko said it would cost “half a billion euros” ($516 million) and criticized the decision. He did not specify the type of equipment in question.
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“The Rada supports the purchase of Russian equipment for the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant. It is planned to spend half a billion euros on this.
“This is some kind of absurdity! Spending money on Russian reactors during a war!” Honcharenko said on Telegram, adding that 261 out of 401 lawmakers voted in favor.
Local legal outlet Sud.ua said Bill 11392, which included clauses on purchasing necessary equipment to build power units No. 3 and No. 4 of the Khmelnytskyi NPP, passed the second reading and awaits President Volodymyr Zelensky’s signature to become law.
In January 2024, Kyiv Post reported that Ukraine planned to build two Western and two Soviet-designed nuclear reactors at the Khmelnytskyi NPP to compensate for energy production hampered by Russia’s full-scale invasion.
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The units would comprise two US-designed AP-1000 reactors, using technology from Western power equipment maker Westinghouse, and another two new, Soviet-designed VVER-1000 units using Russian-made equipment imported from Bulgaria.
Ukraine began construction of the two US-designed reactors in April 2024.
However, some lawmakers have raised concerns about dependence on Russian technology with the latest bill, as the reactors were purchased by Bulgaria from Russia in 2015.
Other lawmakers also raised concerns about the bill’s legitimacy as it was revised at some stage to accommodate the purchase decision, prompting transparency concerns, as per Ukrainian news outlet Zerkalo Nedeli.
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