Ukraine seeks Bulgarian reactors deal

Ukraine’s new Energy Minister Svetlana Grinchuk plans to continue negotiations on the purchase from Bulgaria of Russian equipment for two reactors manufactured for the cancelled Belene NPP. Kyiv wants to use them in the construction of power units at the Khmelnitsky NPP.

“I have a meeting planned for the near future with the Bulgarian minister, we will discuss the possibilities of further bilateral relations specifically in these units,” she noted, adding that she is in favour of completing the construction of the Khmelnitsky units.

However, in April, Deputy Prime Minister and Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leader Atanas Zafirov told a briefing at the party’s headquarters that the two VVER-1000 nuclear reactors stored at the Belene NPP site would not be sold to Ukraine. Zafirov stated that Bulgaria has both the infrastructure and the expertise to develop its nuclear sector domestically and that selling the reactors would be a grave mistake.

Negotiations on selling the reactors, initially intended for the unfinished Belene NPP, began in 2023. In July 2023, the Bulgarian parliament commissioned the Ministry of Energy to start negotiations with Ukraine for sale of the equipment and in February this year, Ukraine’s parliament approved a plan to acquire the reactors for expanding the Khmelnitsky NPP. The deal was endorsed by Bulgaria’s parliament at a value exceeding $600-700m.

The reactors, along with four steam generators and four circulation pumps, have been stored for years at the Belene site near the Danube River after Bulgaria abandoned plans to build the Belene NPP in favour of constructing two new nuclear units at Kozloduy NPP using US-designed AP1000 technology from Westinghouse, with South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction as the builder. The equipment for the suspended Belene project is owned by the National Electric Company and the money from its sale was expected to go to the Kozloduy expansion.

Grinchuk was appointed Energy Minister following a major Ukrainian government reshuffle earlier in July. A few officials from the previous government remained in the government, but in new positions. Former Energy Minister German Galushchenko moved to the Justice Ministry. Grinchuk was previously Minister of Environmental Protection & Natural Resources.