Bulgaria’s deadline passes for Khmelnytskyi NPP reactor sale

The window for Bulgaria to negotiate selling reactors for units 3 and 4 of Ukraine’s Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) closed Tuesday, March 11, according to the Bulgarian National Assembly’s website.

Six months ago, on September 11, 2024, Bulgaria’s parliament extended the talks by 180 days for equipment originally meant for its canceled Belene NPP project. Published in Bulgaria’s State Gazette on September 13, the deadline landed on March 11.

Andriy Gerus, head of Ukraine’s parliamentary energy committee, and Energy Minister German Halushchenko had flagged this date before Ukraine’s parliament passed a law on February 11 to buy the reactors.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy received the bill for signing on February 26, but as of Wednesday morning, March 12, he hadn’t signed it, per Ukraine’s parliament website.

The law, approved by the Verkhovna Rada, authorizes reactor purchases but not the construction of the units.

The energy committee backed completing Khmelnytskyi’s units 3 and 4 on June 17, 2024, though a related bill awaits a vote, stalled by lawmakers’ disagreements and pending an updated technical-economic feasibility study required by the reactor purchase law.

Located in Netishyn in western Ukraine, Khmelnytskyi NPP began construction in 1981 and operates two VVER-1000 reactors with a combined 2,000 MW capacity, launched in 1987 and 2004. Originally designed for four units, its third and fourth remain unfinished.

The state nuclear operator Energoatom aims to complete the two VVER-1000 units and add two more powerful AP1000 units using U.S. tech, each up to 1,200 MW. If realized, the plant’s total capacity could top 6,000 MW, making it Europe’s largest.