Energoatom to receive money to modernize nuclear power plants
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has a approved a huge loan to Ukraine to help it modernize its nuclear power facilities, and make them safer.
Ukraine’s nuclear power holding Energoatom will receive the $42 million loan.
The EBRD said in a July 6 statement that the European Community may also lend Energoatom a further $83 million.
The money will be used to ensure that two new generators that are scheduled to become operational later this year and 13 nuclear power stations meet international safety standards. Ukraine’s Energoatom is scheduled to complete two new 1,000-megawatt nuclear blocs this year: one at the Khmelnytsky Nuclear Power Plant and the other at the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant.
Energoatom is funding the construction projects.
Originally, the EBRD and EC had offered to build the two new reactor blocs on condition that Ukraine would shut down the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986. That project never materialized, so Ukraine built the new Khmelnytsky and Rivne facilities by itself, after shutting down Chornobyl for good in December 2000.
The EBRD said the loan was a response to improvements within Ukraine’s energy sector, and specifically within Energoatom.
“Energoatom is applying more transparent procedures for collecting bills and the company now raises sufficient cash for full recovery of its operating costs.
“Moreover, the portion of electricity bills collected in the form of cash rather than barter has risen more than tenfold [in recent years] to nearly 100 percent,” an EBRD statement reads.
The newly approved credit line is one of the largest single loans by the EBRD to Ukraine.
The National Environmental Center, an international non-governmental organization, urged the EBRD on July 5 to postpone issuance of the loan out of fear that construction of the generators would otherwise be rushed.
The largest single credit line ever issued by the EBRD in the country was a 97.2 million euro loan to Starobeshevo Thermal Power Plant and a 75 million euro highway improvement project.
The largest loan to a privately owned company operating in Ukraine was a 47.6 million euro credit to German grain trading firm Toepfer.
As of June 2004, the EBRD has provided 1.452 billion euros in funds to companies in Ukraine. Owned by 60 countries and two intergovernmental institutions, the EBRD’s goal is to foster the transition from centrally planned economies to market economies in Central and Eastern Europe, and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
