Private nuclear power plants could appear in Ukraine — Herman Halushchenko

Ukraine should open its nuclear energy sector to private investment, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said Thursday during a panel discussion on Ukraine’s role in Europe’s clean industrial transformation at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC-2025) in Rome.

“In fact, there are many private nuclear power plants in the world. You see many companies that have private shares. We should do the same in Ukraine,” he said.

Halushchenko emphasized that enabling such investment would require the adoption of a new law.

“We need to adopt a law. Sorry, it’s not easy from a political point of view, but we will do it,” he said.

The minister said Ukraine should not treat different types of energy generation as being in competition, and that all technologies should be developed together as part of a comprehensive strategy.

“I do not want to express myself in such a way that it’s either nuclear energy or renewable energy sources, or nuclear or gas generation,” he said.

Nuclear projects are complex and take time to implement, Halushchenko said, so the development of other generating capacities must proceed in parallel.

“For example, if you need time to build one nuclear power unit, then you can build more renewable energy sources at the same time. But, believe me, we need baseload generation. We will not be able to survive without it,” he said.

Halushchenko added that baseload electricity is particularly essential for industrial consumers.

NV previously reported that Ukraine could become a leader in the construction of new nuclear power plants in Europe.