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RUSSIAN MISSILESXXIMPYour browser does not support the element. have knocked out roughly half of Ukraine’s pre-war electricity-generation capacity. But because Russia has refrained from blowing up nuclear reactors, nearly 60% of Ukraine’s electricity production is currently nuclear—even though the country’s (and Europe’s) biggest plant, in Zaporizhia, was occupied by Russia in 2022 and is now shut down. Without nuclear reactors, says German Galushchenko, the energy minister, Ukraine’s grid “would not survive”. In what would be a first for a country under assault, Ukraine now aims to install more of them.Initial construction has begun. At Khmelnitsky, a plant in western Ukraine with two existing reactors, connections are being built to a “shovel ready” area where four more reactors are planned, says Elias Gedeon of Westinghouse, an American partner on the project. Westinghouse is to provide two reactors. The other two, of Russian design, are to be purchased for $600m or so from Bulgaria, where they were mothballed after a project fell apart in 2012. Haggling continues, but Mr Galushchenko says Russian meddling in Bulgaria has so far failed to scuttle the deal.Boosters say the project can move quickly. The reactors in Bulgaria are of the same type already operating at Khmelnitsky, and structures to house them were partially built in the 1980s. Mr Galushchenko reckons the first one could be fired up in three years, though that may be optimistic.Adding reactors will clearly not solve Ukraine’s immediate energy crunch. Victoria Voytsitska, a former member of the energy committee of Ukraine’s parliament, fears that without more power, 1.5m more Ukrainians might flee abroad this winter. She thinks the money would be better spent on networks of small gas-fired plants and other kit harder for Russia to destroy.Others worry that building a nuclear project will tempt Russia to attack it. Andriy Ziuz, ex-chief of staff at Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, fears Russia would hammer the construction site before nuclear fuel is brought in. Russia has blown up high-voltage substations connected to nuclear plants, which could theoretically trigger an accident. Mykhailo Gonchar of the Centre for Global Studies Strategy , an energy think-tank in Kyiv, argues this shows that the Kremlin cares more about destroying Ukraine than about any harm such attacks do to its reputation.Mr Ziuz says the conflict has reduced Ukraine’s skilled nuclear workforce to a troubling level. The reliability of the Bulgarian reactors is another question, as is the availability of spare parts, which Ukraine will not obtain from Russia. Then there is the cost. Inna Sovsun, an on the energy committee, slams the government for providing outdated estimates from a 2018 study involving a slightly different reactor type—one reason, she says, why parliament has yet to give its approval.Whether nuclear power is a logical solution to Ukraine’s energy problems can be debated. But its strategists may have something else in mind. James Acton of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an American think-tank, wonders whether the country is trying to bring in Westinghouse reactors and American engineers to give its ally another reason to prevent a takeover by Russia.
