The capabilities and prospects of our country's nuclear power industry became one of the key topics for discussion at the Ukraine Recovery Conference, which took place in Lugano, Switzerland, on July 4-5, 2022.
The prospects of the Ukrainian energy sector were presented by the Minister of Energy of Ukraine Herman Halushchenko. On the first day of the Conference, he took part in the break-out session "Environmental recovery: going green and achieving energy security", where he emphasized the need to rebuild destroyed Ukrainian cities using new carbon-free technologies, creating the so-called «cities of the future», and called on foreign partners to join the relevant investment.
After all, the full-scale invasion of the russian federation on the territory of Ukraine led to significant destruction of infrastructure and thumping damages, which are estimated at billions. Thus, according to the Minister, about 30% of solar generation capacity, about 90% of wind generation capacity, 30.1% of cogeneration plants and thermal power plants are now destroyed or occupied, power grids suffer significant losses. Furthermore, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe – Zaporizhzhya, whose capacity generated more than 20% of the total amount of electricity in the country before the beginning of the russian invasion – has also been captured.
During the "Private Sector and Recovery" forum, which took place on the second day of the Conference, Herman Halushchenko presented potential investment projects in various sectors of the Ukrainian power industry for a total amount of more than $120 billion.
Special attention was paid to nuclear power capacities. After all, as the Minister noted, nuclear is one of the most promising directions for investment, as it is the main one in power system of Ukraine and on average generates about 60% of all electricity in the country.
According to Herman Halushchenko, our country strives to further develop nuclear industry: "It is of the utmost importance that even in wartime, in this challenging period, there are companies ready to invest in Ukraine right now. We have agreements with the Westinghouse company, which provide for the construction of 9 new nuclear power units using AP 1000 technology in the near-term". The first of these 9 to be built are two – the 5th and 6th power units at the Khmelnytskyy NPP. The expected construction cost is about $12 billion.
Within the framework of the Conference, Minister Halushchenko also met with high-ranking officials, diplomats, representatives of international organizations and investors to discuss the situation in Ukraine and the world and find common ways to address issues of concern.
In particular, the discussions were held related to the need to ramp up sanctions against russia in the energy field, increase the volume of Ukrainian electricity exports to EU countries as part of the process of replacing russian energy carriers in Europe, infrastructure projects, and cooperation for further sustainable development of the energy sector of Ukraine.
Special attention was paid to the prospects for the development of Ukrainian nuclear and green energy, and the creation of energy storage systems, in particular as a potential for investment.
