Ukrainian, US companies enter agreement to build new nuclear reactor

Ukrainian nuclear energy company Energoatom has signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with US nuclear manufacturing company Westinghouse, for the completion of the former’s Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant (NPP) unit 4, using the latter’s AP1000 reactor technology, World Nuclear News has reported. Khmelnitsky 4 was originally intended to be a Russian-technology VVER design but its construction was halted when it was only 28% complete. Construction of the new unit would be significantly accelerated by the fact that major AP1000 reactor components had already been built and were currently stored in the US, in a facility in the state of South Carolina. These components have been inspected by a delegation from Energoatom, including its acting director (head), Petro Kotin.