Rada withdraws from consideration scandalous bill on completion of Khmelnytskyi NPP power units

The Verkhovna Rada has withdrawn from consideration the bill No. 11146 on the placement, design and construction of power units No. 3, 4 of the Khmelnytskyi NPP.

This was reported by MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak in his Telegram channel.

“Already withdrawn) There are no votes) Although they are still very actively working to find votes….. I haven’t seen this in the Verkhovna Rada for a long time. Big money is at stake,” the MP wrote.

The bill was the first item on the agenda of today’s Verkhovna Rada meeting under the first item.

The document provided for the construction of power units No. 3 and No. 4 at the Khmelnytskyi NPP based on VVER-1000 reactors (a Soviet-russian project) and that the project would be implemented on the basis of international agreements, the binding nature of which is given by the Verkhovna Rada.

In other words, the bill authorizes the purchase of equipment intended for the construction of this type of reactors abroad. According to Ukrainian government officials, the reactors were built by the russian company Atomstroyexport, which were intended for the Belene NPP project in Bulgaria. And negotiations with Bulgaria on their purchase are in the final stage.

Such a project has sparked lively discussion among experts and politicians, among whom there was a lot of criticism, including from the aforementioned MP Zhelezniak.

EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarína Mathernová, in a comment to European Pravda, stated that the project was developed without the participation of the EU and that it would not finance it, since the EU does not finance nuclear energy projects at all.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko predicted in June that from the moment the parliament adopted the bill on the completion of the construction of power units No. 3 and No. 4 at the Khmelnytskyi NPP, power unit No. 3 could be connected to the power grid in 2.5-3 years, since its degree of readiness is up to 80%.

Khmelnytskyi NPP operates 2 power units (VVER-1000) with a total capacity of 2,000 MW (connected in 1987 and 2004).