Ukraine will purchase two Russian-made nuclear reactors. They say itʼs “betrayal” and a “corruption scheme”. Is it true? Spoiler: itʼs definitely not betrayal, and it may be corruptional only potentially

The unfinished Bulgarian nuclear power plant, from which Ukraineʼs “Energoatom” plans to buy equipment, is a long and painful project.

For years, the abandoned construction site of the nuclear power plant near the Bulgarian town of Belene, as well as its unfinished "ghost" quarter, where nuclear engineers were supposed to live, served as illustrations for materials about the decline of nuclear energy in Europe.

The construction contractor was “Rosatom”. Bulgaria started and abandoned construction three times

. As a memento of this project, the unfinished buildings and equipment that “Rosatom” supplied to Bulgaria remain. It is now stored in a preserved form. Among the preserved equipment are power plants (also known as nuclear reactors) VVER-1000. VVER-1000 plants were produced in Soviet times, in various modifications. “Rosatom” supplied Bulgaria with the B-466 modification — with increased safety.

These are the two power plants that Ukrainian “Energoatom” will purchase. It plans to install them on two unfinished units of the Khmelnytskyi NPP — the third and fourth.

Getty Images / «Babel'»

Equipment from the unfinished Belene nuclear power plant is stored in the engine room. 2018.

Getty Images / «Babel'»

The heated debates surrounding the purchase of Russian power plants have been going on since the summer of 2023, when “Energoatom” began negotiating with the Bulgarian National Electric Company (NEC).

Interestingly, they are taking place not only in the Ukrainian but also in the Bulgarian parliament — and are somewhat similar to each other. Both there and there, opposition deputies accuse the authorities of betraying national interests, although for diametrically opposed reasons. Bulgarian oppositionists

see the “betrayal” in the fact that the power plants were sold to Ukraine and not used at home, Ukrainians see it in the fact that they were bought from Bulgaria “instead of drones,” and moreover, they were Russian-made.

The Bulgarian government has long wanted to get rid of the power plants. At a special parliamentary session in the summer of 2023, the former Bulgarian Minister of Economy reported to deputies that storing the equipment costs the country several million euros a year. At the same time, Ukraine is the only country in the world that needs these reactors: it is the only one that has a nuclear power plant with unfinished buildings for VVER-1000, but without the power plants themselves.

Bulgarian opposition MPs opposed the sale, accusing the government of “betrayal”. Eventually, the Bulgarian parliament tasked the energy minister with negotiating with “Energoatom”. The MPs set a deadline for negotiations (March 2025) and indicated that Energoatom must pay at least 602 million euros — no less than Bulgaria once paid for them.

On February 11, the Verkhovna Rada allowed “Energoatom” to buy Russian reactors in Bulgaria, which immediately angered the opposition and anti-corruption activists.

“European Solidarity” MPs dedicated several emotional posts to the deal. The chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Vitaliy Shabunin and the editor-in-chief of the publication Nashi Hroshi Yuriy Nikolov discussed the deal in a podcast, calling the reactors “garbage” and everything that is happening corruption.

All claims to the agreement can be conditionally divided into technical and political. The easiest to analyze are technical

claims. A large amount of data on the construction of the Khmelnytskyi NPP is available in open sources. In addition, Babel consulted with Yuriy Malakhov, who in 2000-2023 was the chairman of the board of the design institute "Energoproekt

information reference

This institute has been designing equipment for Ukrainian nuclear power plants since Soviet times. “Energoproekt” also prepared the first feasibility study for the completion of the Kherson NPP (approved by Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman in 2018).

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Here are the answers to our basic technical questions:

• Does “Energoatom” need to obtain design documentation or a license from Russia to complete the third and fourth units of the Khmelnytskyi NPP? No. Ukraine had already completed and commissioned power units — the second unit of the Khmelnytskyi NPP and the fourth unit of the Rivne NPP — back in the mid-2000s. It managed without “Rosatom”.
• Does “Energoatom” need to buy nuclear fuel for its VVER-1000 reactors from Russia? No. Ukraine began converting its VVER-1000 reactors to fuel from the American company “Westinghouse” back in 2000. Thirteen such reactors operate in Ukraine. Since the spring of 2022, fuel for them has been purchased only from “Westinghouse”. For Kherson NPP, fuel will be supplied by “Westinghouse” Sweden. Moreover, “Energoatom” plans to transfer the final “assembly” of nuclear fuel to a Ukrainian plant.
• Is it necessary to purchase additional equipment in Russia, because Bulgarian power plants will not be sold to us "turnkey"? No. The Bulgarian supply includes all the main unique elements of power plants that cannot be produced anywhere else except in Russia: reactor vessels, steam generators, pressure compensators and main circulation pipelines. According to Yuriy Malakhov, all other elements can be designed by “Energoproekt” and ordered for their production in Europe.
• Will “Energoproekt” be able to cope? Yes. According to Yuriy Malakhov, it was the Kyiv institute that designed the VVER-1000 reactor in the B-392 modification — and this is the “parent” modification in relation to the B-466 (the one purchased in Bulgaria).
• The third and fourth units were built for VVER-1000 reactors of modification B-320. Will it be possible to install reactors of modification B-466 purchased in Bulgaria in them? Yes, because they are identical in layout, and their hulls differ in linear dimensions only slightly, from half a centimeter to one and a half centimeters.
• How reliable are the abandoned building structures of the third and fourth units of the Khmelnytskyi NPP, where the reactors purchased in Bulgaria will be installed? According to the official report of “Energoatom” for 2021, the reliability of the unfinished construction was checked in 2019-2020 by the same “Energoproekt” and the Research Institute of Building Structures. They established that repairs are needed there, and after that the structures will last another 65 years.

The main "political" claims to the agreement with Bulgaria concern the money for the purchase of reactors and the timing of the construction of the units.

It is not entirely clear how “Energoatom” will finance the purchase of the reactors. Back in 2023, the Wall Street Journal (based on anonymous sources) mentioned two financing options: the first — the purchase would be financed by the United States, the second — in exchange for the reactors, the Bulgarian State Energy Holding would receive a minority stake in the Khmelnytskyi NPP.

The amount that “Energoatom” will pay for the reactors is also unknown. According to anonymous sources, last year the Bulgarian National Electric Company ordered an audit of the equipment that is being preserved in Belene. The auditor named the amount as about 1 billion euros — which is much higher than the “lower” limit set by the Bulgarian parliament. “Energoatom” says that negotiations on the price are still ongoing.

According to Yuriy Malakhov, it will take two to two and a half years to complete, commission, and launch the third unit of the Khmelnytskyi NPP. The project will cost a total of three and a half to four billion euros, which is several times cheaper than building a unit from scratch for a Western power plant.