CONSULTING

Ukraine has 15 operating reactors, two of the VVER440 design and the rest VVER1000s. They
provided 82.4 TWh or 56.5 percent of power in 2015, a considerable rise in both output and
percentage contribution over the previous year. Also rising was the income from electricity sales,
which increased by 41 percent to 39.4 billion hryvnas (US$1.6 billion). While on paper this suggests a
positive economic situation, non-payment has meant that Energoatom is “crippled financially and
must borrow from banks to pay its bills”, 937 and during April 2016 their accounts were frozen by the
courts. 938
Twelve out of the country’s 15 reactors were completed in the 1980s and had an original design
life of thirty years. The nuclear operator has proposed to extend lifetime of the reactors for
another 20 years. The proposal was accepted and now it is a core element of the energy strategy
approved by the government. The programme is estimated to cost €1.45 billion (US$1.62 billion)
in total, of which the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and EURATOM will
contribute €600 million ((US$670 million). To date two nuclear reactors at Rivne have been
granted a life extension of 20 years and two units at South Ukraine for 10 years. Two units at
Zaporizhzhya NPP are currently not operating to implement measures necessary for the license
extension with the expected decision of the nuclear regulator in first half 2016. The lifetime
extension of Rivne-1 and -2 is part of an ongoing controversy within the Espoo Convention on
transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), which concluded that Ukraine was in
non-compliance for not executing an EIA before its decision to prolong the lifetime of these
VVER440 reactors after their technical lifetime of 30 years. 939 Environmental groups in Ukraine
have called upon European institutions to stop the support for “risk” life extension
programmes. 940
Two reactors, Khmelnitsky-3 and -4, are officially under construction. Building work started in
1986 and 1987 but stopped in 1990. In February 2011, Russia and Ukraine signed an
intergovernmental agreement to complete the reactors, and in 2012, the Ukrainian Parliament
adopted legislation to create a framework to finance the project, with 80 percent of the funds
coming from Russia. It is unclear how much work has been completed, with the documentation
for the EIA stating the units were 35–40 percent and 5–10 percent complete respectively, while
the operator NNEGC “Energoatom” stated on its website that construction of units 3 and 4 is
reaching 75 percent and 28 percent completion. 941 However, in September 2015, the Ukrainian
937 NIW, “Nuclear restart jeopardized by political crisis”, 26 February 2016.
938 NEI, “Ukraine nuclear utility in financial difficulty”, 27 April 2016, see
http://www.neimagazine.com/news/newsukrainian-nuclear-utility-in-financial-difficulty-4876101, accessed
7 May 2016.
939 Committee Initiative on Ukraine, “EIA/IC/CI/4 Ukraine—Information on matters considered by the
Committee”, UNECE, see http://www.unece.org/environmental-policy/conventions/environmentalassessment/areas-of-work/review-of-compliance/committee-initiative/eiaicci4-ukraine.html,
accessed 2 July 2016.
940 Iryna Holovko, “Time for Europe to stop supporting Ukraine’s risky nuclear power sector”, Energy Post,
18 May 2016, see http://www.energypost.eu/time-europe-stop-supporting-ukraines-risky-nuclear-power-sector/,
accessed 2 July 2016.
941 Oda Becker, et al., “Khmelnitsky NPP, Construction of Units 3 and 4—Expert Statement to the Information
and Analytical Survey of the Feasibility Study and the EIA Report of the FS”, Umweltbundesamt
(Environment Agency Austria), Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water
Mycle Schneider, Antony Froggatt et al. 212 World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2016