ISTANBUL

Ukraine’s parliament voted Tuesday to support a draft bill on Kyiv’s purchase of two Russian-made reactors from Bulgaria for the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant.

The draft bill’s adoption was announced by Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak, who said on Telegram that the bill passed with 261 votes in favor.

Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko hailed the Verkhovna Rada's decision, saying in a ministry statement that the vote paves the way for the completion of the plant’s third and fourth power units.

He was further quoted as saying that the decision will give Energoatom, Ukraine's state-owned nuclear power utility and largest power producer, permission to purchase the two VVER-1000 reactors needed, adding that everything in the project will be implemented by Ukrainian and American companies.

In the statement, the Ukrainian Energy Ministry said that construction work on the plant’s third power unit is 80% complete, while progress at the fourth power unit is 25%.

It added that connecting the power units to the country's energy system will give Ukraine an additional 2.2 gigawatts of guaranteed base generation.

The plant, located near the city of Netishyn in the Khmelnytskyi region, currently has two working reactors and is one of three operational nuclear power plants in the country under Kyiv's control.

In July 2023, Bulgaria’s parliament instructed its energy minister to conduct negotiations with its Ukrainian counterpart for the purchase of the two reactors, which were originally intended to be used in the country’s Belene Nuclear Power Plant project, which was abandoned in 2012.