NuScale small modular reactors could be an option for Ukraine. Courtesy NuScale. Ukraine is working to develop its nuclear energy sector, including the use of advanced nuclear technologies like small modular reactors, with the aim of ensuring its energy security, according to the East European country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Mr Zelensky met yesterday in Kiev with Rafael Mariano Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, on the 35th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

“Today I can confidently say that Ukraine is determined to develop its nuclear energy,” Mr Zelensky said.

According to Mr Zelensky, Ukraine plans “to switch” to the use of the latest nuclear reactor technology, including US-based NuScale’s SMR-160 design, “since it has the goal of localising technological production for SMR-160 in Ukraine”.

The SMR-160 is a light-water based pressurised SMR, which generates 160 MWe (525 MWth) and relies on gravity as the workhorse to operate the reactor and the completely passive safety systems.

In early 2020, NuScale signed a memorandum of understanding with Ukraine’s State Scientific and Technical Centre for Nuclear and Radiation Safety (SSTC NRS) to evaluate regulatory and design processes related to the potential deployment of NuScale’s SMR in Ukraine.