The agreement also increases the number of new nuclear units Westinghouse will build to nine from an earlier five. The company will establish an engineering center in the country.
Ukraine has four working nuclear power stations. The largest of which, in Zaporizhzhia, fell under Russian control days after the Russian invasion began in February; however, it is still operated by Ukrainian technicians.
Building on earlier agreements, the deal with Westinghouse stipulates that the company will supply fuel to all of Ukraine’s atomic plants.
Ukraine Could Supply Europe in Future
Nuclear power covers around half of all Ukrainian electricity needs. The energy minister said that Ukraine could also be a supplier of electricity to western Europe in the future.
“We will modernize our fleet of nuclear power units, which will produce clean, safe, and reliable energy without any Russian influence,” Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said, according to a statement by the state atomic energy company Energoatom.
Energoatom denied a report that it might shut down the Zaporizhzhia plant if Kyiv loses control of operations at the site.
Ukraine has repeatedly raised safety concerns about the plant since Russia’s invasion began on Feb. 24. On Friday, it warned that it was running out of spare parts.
