“We expect one of the sources of financing for construction of a power unit based on Westinghouse AP1000 technology will be a loan from American financial organisations,” Mr Kotin said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Mr Kotin said Energoatom has begun discussing the project with the US Export-Import Bank (Exim), and the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).
Exim is the official export credit agency of the US federal government and the DFC is the federal government’s development finance institution, primarily responsible for providing and facilitating the financing of private development projects in lower- and middle-income countries.
In July 2020, the DFC finalised a change to its environmental and social policy and procedures, which would allow the development bank to invest in nuclear power projects.
Soon after the policy change the US said it was already in talks with potential countries such as Kenya and Ghana looking to develop their own nuclear energy programmes.
“Our expectations and calculations are a commodity loan plus the company’s own revenues,” he said. The estimated cost of the power unit is $5bn, Mr Kotin added.
Earlier this month, Energoatom and Westinghouse signed an exclusive agreement to bring Westinghouse AP1000 reactors to multiple sites in the eastern European country. At the time they did not say which sites are under consideration, but Mr Kotin appears to have confirmed Khmelnitski – where there are two Russia-supplied units in operation and two under construction – as a priority.
Khmelnitski-1 and -2 began commercial operation in 1998 and 2005 respectively. Khmelnitski-3 and -4 have been under construction since the late 1980s, but progress has stalled because of financing and political issues.
Westinghouse and Energoatom have signed a number of contracts over the past years for the supply of Westinghouse-made fuel for a large part of Ukraine’s reactor fleet.
Westinghouse AP1000 technology is the only Generation III+ reactor technology licensed by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and in several countries in Europe and Asia. Four AP1000 units are in commercial operation in China – two at the Sanmen nuclear station and two at Haiyang. Two are nearing completion at the Vogtle site in the US state of Georgia.
The AP1000 technology has been selected for a six-unit project in India and is under consideration by several countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, and utilities in the US, Westinghouse said.
Energoatom, operates Ukraine’s fleet of 15 commercial nuclear power plants, which in 2020 provided about 51% of the country’s electricity production share.