THE Ukraine expects to begin construction work 4 new nuclear reactors this summer or fall, Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushenko told Reuters today, as Ukraine seeks to make up for the loss of energy capacity due to the war with Russia.

Two of the units – which include reactors and related equipment – will rely on Russian-made equipment which Ukraine wants to import from Bulgaria, while in the others two It will be used western technology from energy equipment manufacturer Westinghouse.

All four reactors will be built in nuclear power plant of Khmelnitsky in western Ukraine, Halushenko added.

That timetable is more dynamic than previously reported by Kiev, which spoke of starting operations sometime in 2024 and did not specify that all four reactors might be up and running at the same time.

“I believe (that we will start construction) in the summer-autumn,” Halushenko said in an interview. “We need vessels,” he added, referring to the reactor pressure vessels that will need to be imported. “We want to do the third and fourth units right away.”

The construction of the 3rd and 4th reactor at Khmelnitsky had begun his decade 1980 but then it was frozen.

After gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine built three new nuclear reactors — one at the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, one at Khmelnytskyi, and one at Rivne.

Today three nuclear power plants of electricity production in Ukrainian-controlled territories of Ukraine produce over the 55% of electricity which the country needs, but Kiev wants to expand the sector to compensate for the loss of the one in Zaporizhia, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.

Russia took control of the Zaporizhia plant after invading Ukraine in early 2022, and its six nuclear reactors are currently idle.

“With the 3rd and 4th (Khmelnytskyi unit) we want to make up for Zaporizhia and now we have talks with our Bulgarian partners about the two anti-tank guns we want” to build, Halushenko added.

“If we were to receive the reactor vessels today, I believe in 2.5 years we would have a third reactor on line,” he noted.

Alongside the construction of the Soviet-era VVER-1000 units, Ukraine wants to begin preparatory work for the construction of two modern Western AP-1000 units, also in Khmelnytskyi.

“Legislation needs to be passed (by parliament) and we have bills for the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th units. These (3rd and 4th) are VVER-1000, while for the 5th and 6th we want to make AP. They are a parallel process,” he concluded.

In December, Ukraine’s nuclear power company Energoatom and Westinghouse signed an agreement to purchase equipment for Khmelnytskyi’s 5th unit.