Ukraine, together with its American partners, continues to move towards the complete removal of russia's monopoly on the nuclear technology market. On 17 December 2023, in the presence of the Minister of Energy of Ukraine German Galushchenko, President of SE NNEGC Energoatom Petro Kotin and President and CEO of Westinghouse Electric Company Patrick Fragman signed an agreement on the purchase of equipment for KhNPP Unit 5 at the Ministry of Energy. It will be built using the American AP1000 technology.

"There were no such reactors in Ukraine, there are none in the post-Soviet space, and there are none in Europe yet. This is one of the most advanced technologies in nuclear energy, which makes it possible to maintain the safety systems of nuclear power plants even in case of blackouts and the absence of diesel generators or other power systems," Minister of Energy of Ukraine German Galushchenko said and added that by signing these agreements, Ukraine continued to implement its course to completely move away from Soviet-russian technologies in nuclear energy and strengthened cooperation with American partners in this area.

"This is critical for strengthening Ukraine's energy security and renewing our nuclear power industry, which has been, still remains and will be the key generation in Ukraine," said German Galushchenko.

Petro Kotin noted that the receipt of this equipment was essential for the Ukrainian power system, as the actual capacity of the AP1000 units stands at 1,100 MW, while the most powerful nuclear units in Ukraine currently have a capacity of 1,000 MW.

"We have reached a major milestone in the process that began back in 2021 during the visit of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the United States. And I am grateful that we received the support of the Government and the Ministry of Energy, in particular, in making the decisions that allowed us to sign these contracts," said the President of Energoatom, adding that the construction of the relevant facilities will begin immediately after the Verkhovna Rada adopts the necessary law.

Patrick Fragman, in turn, noted that AP1000 technology is one of the most promising in the world.

"We are moving to a new level of cooperation. This agreement is of fundamental importance for Ukraine's energy security since it is a highly reliable technology. Today, five AP1000 units are in operation around the world, in particular in the United States and China, and five more are almost ready to be commissioned. Poland and Bulgaria are interested in the construction of such reactors, as well as a number of other countries," the Westinghouse President stressed.

As a reminder, on 22 November 2021, Energoatom and Westinghouse signed two cooperation agreements to implement a pilot project for the construction of AP1000 power units at the Khmelnytsky NPP site. On 20 January 2023, the Government approved the proposals of the Ministry of Energy to develop a feasibility study for the construction of a nuclear facility using the technical characteristics of the AP1000 reactor.

In total, according to the decisions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and memoranda signed between NNEGC Energoatom and the US company Westinghouse Electric Company, Ukraine plans to build 9 power units using AP1000 technology. The first two of them will be built at the Khmelnytsky NPP site.