Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

operates four

nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a electric generator, generato ...

s with 15 reactors located in

Volhynia Volhynia (also spelled Volynia) ( ; uk, Воли́нь, Volyn' pl, Wołyń, russian: Волы́нь, Volýnʹ, ), is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between south-eastern Poland, south-western Belarus, and western Ukraine. Th ...

and

South Ukraine Southern Ukraine ( uk, південна Україна, translit=pivdenna Ukrayina) or south Ukraine refers, generally, to the oblasts in the south of Ukraine. The territory usually corresponds with the Soviet economical district, the Southern E ...

. The total installed nuclear power capacity is over 13 GWe, ranking 7th in the world in 2020. Energoatom, a Ukrainian

state enterprise A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...

, operates all four active nuclear power stations in Ukraine.Energoatom chief Kim overstepped his powers when signing contract, failed to show up for questioning, says interior minister

Interfax-Ukraine The Interfax-Ukraine ( uk, Інтерфакс-Україна) is a Kyiv-based Ukraine, Ukrainian independent news agency founded in 1992. The company does not belong to the Russian news corporation Interfax Information Services. The company pub ...

(12 June 2013) In 2019,

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

supplied over 20% of Ukraine's energy. 70 TWh of electricity generation was nuclear in 2020, which was over 50%. This was the 3rd largest share, only

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and Slovakia had a higher share. The largest nuclear power plant in Europe is in Ukraine. The 1986

Chernobyl disaster The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuc ...

in Northern Ukraine was the world's most severe nuclear accident to date. Lack of coal for Ukraine's coal-fired power stations due to the War in Donbas and a shut down of one of the six reactors of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant led to rolling blackouts throughout the country in December 2014. Due to the

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War; uk, російсько-українська війна, rosiisko-ukrainska viina. has been ongoing between Russia (alongside Russian separatist forces in Donbas, Russian separatists in Ukraine) and Ukraine since Feb ...

, the nuclear power plant has been damaged.

Overview

Ukraine relies to a large extent on nuclear power. The largest nuclear power plant in Europe, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, is located in Ukraine. In 2006, the government planned to build 11 new reactors by the year 2030, which would almost double the current amount of nuclear power capacity. Ukraine's power sector is the twelfth-largest in the world in terms of installed capacity, with 54 gigawatts (GW).

Renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

still plays a very modest role in electrical output; in 2005 energy production was met by the following sources: nuclear (47%), thermal (45%),

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

and other (8%).

History of Soviet origin

The

was a

nuclear accident A nuclear and radiation accident is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "an event that has led to significant consequences to people, the environment or the facility. Examples include lethal effects to individuals, lar ...

that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in

Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, which spread over much of Western USSR and Europe. It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other being the

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 and ...

). The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles, crippling the Soviet economy. Ukraine used to receive its

nuclear fuel Nuclear fuel is material used in nuclear power stations to produce heat to power turbines. Heat is created when nuclear fuel undergoes nuclear fission. Most nuclear fuels contain heavy fissile actinide elements that are capable of undergoing ...

exclusively from

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

by the Russian company TVEL. Since 2008 the country also gets nuclear fuel from Westinghouse.Westinghouse CEO: We are ready to put our fuel in all of Ukraine's NPP

UNIAN The UNIAN or Ukrainian Independent Information Agency of News ( uk, Українське Незалежне Інформаційне Агентство Новин, УНІАН, translit=Ukrayins'ke Nezalezhne Informatsiyne Ahentstvo Novyn) is a ...

(28 October 2015) Since 2014 Westinghouse's share of imports grew to more than 30% in 2016 due to strong social disapproval of any economic relations with Russia after Crimea annexation. In 2018 Westinghouse's contract to supply VVER fuel was extended to 2025. Oil and

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

provide the remainder of the country's energy; these are also imported from the former

Recent renewal and transformation

In 2011 Energoatom began a project to bring safety into line with international standards at an estimated cost of $1.8 billion, with a target completion date of 2017. In 2015 the completion date was put back to 2020, due to financing delays. In 2015 some government agencies made

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

allegations against Energoatom, with concerns raised by Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. In March 2016, Energoatom's assets and bank accounts were frozen by Ukrainian courts over allegedly unpaid debts; Energoatom appealed the decision, but the frozen finances led to contractual breaches. In June 2016 its bank accounts were unfrozen. In February 2018 Ukraine secured $250 million of U.S. funding to build a spent nuclear fuel storage facility, which will avoid the need to ship spent nuclear fuel to Russia. In 2018 Energoatom stated that electricity prices were too low to cover the cost of new

, and called for a price increase. In 2008 Westinghouse Electric Company won a five-year contract selling nuclear fuel to three Ukrainian reactors starting in 2011. Following

Euromaidan Euromaidan (; uk, Євромайдан, translit=Yevromaidan, lit=Euro Square, ), or the Maidan Uprising, was a wave of Political demonstration, demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protes ...

then President Viktor Yanukovych introduced a ban on

Rosatom Rosatom, ( rus, Росатом, p=rɐsˈatəm}) also known as Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom or Rosatom State Corporation, is a Russian state corporation headquartered in Moscow that speciali ...

nuclear fuel shipments to Europe via Ukraine, which was in effect from 28 January until 6 March 2014. By 2016, Russia's share was down to 55 percent, Westinghouse supplying nuclear fuel for six of Ukraine's VVER-1000 nuclear reactors. After the Russian annexation of Crimea in April 2014, Energoatom and Westinghouse extended the contract for fuel deliveries through 2020. In 2019 Energoatom and Turboatom signed a five year contract to modernize condensers and turbines at a number of Ukrainian nuclear power plants. On 4 December 2019, Ukraine's government appointed Pavlo Pavlyshyn as acting head of Energoatom. During January 2020 Energoatom discussed eight legislative bills with the chairman of the

Ukrainian parliament The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( uk, Верхо́вна Ра́да Украї́ни, translit=, Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, translation=Supreme Council of Ukraine, Ukrainian abbreviation ''ВРУ''), often simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the ...

subcommittee on nuclear energy and safety, aimed at meeting international obligations and standards, and the financial stabilization of Energoatom. In August 2021 Energoatom and Westinghouse signed a contract for construction of Westinghouse AP1000 reactors to replace the unfinished blocks in Khmelnitskyi power plant.

2022

On 24 February 2022, the Ukrainian electricity grid disconnected from the post-Soviet IPS/UPS grid, ahead of synchronizing with the Synchronous grid of Continental Europe which was achieved on March 16. In March 2022, Russian forces seized control of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. It continues to operate and supply data, including from a remote monitoring system, to the

International Atomic Energy Agency The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 1957 ...

. On 6 June, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said "at least five of the seven indispensable pillars of nuclear safety and security have been compromised" in Russia's occupation of the plant, and after attacks in August, that all seven had been breached. Because of the 2022 Russian war against Ukraine, the nuclear power plant has been damaged.

Uranium mining

In 2005 there were 17 deposits on the state balance account.About economic feasibility to attract investments in exploration and development of uranium deposits in Ukraine
Ukrainian geological projects. Three of them Vatutine, Central, and Michurinske were being developed, while an ore enrichment factory was being built at Novokostiantyniv. Number of deposits are exhausted (i.e. Devladove, Zhovtorichenske, Pershotravneve, Bratske). Activists have been long alerting about ''Dnipro Chemical Plant'' in

Kamianske Kamianske ( uk, Кам'янське, ), formerly Dniprodzerzhynsk, is an industrial city in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast of Ukraine and a port on the Dnieper. Administratively, it serves as the administrative center of Kamianske Raion. Kamianske hosts ...

, which is a Soviet-times military uranium processing facility that consists of industrial buildings, equipment containing uranium waste as well as large landfills where tailings were stored. Small scale soil, water and dust leaks have been documented from the facility, but apart from securing the perimeter not much has been done to properly secure the plant.

List of reactors

All of Ukraine's RBMK reactors (the type involved in the 1986

) were located at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. All of the reactors there have been shut down, leaving only the much safer VVER reactors operating in the country.Nuclear fuel imports from Sweden account for 41.6% in H1, balance from Russia

(22 August 2016) Three of the reactors listed were built in post-independence Ukraine, with the first one of these being constructed in 1995; the other sixteen reactors the country inherited from the Soviet Union.