U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm spoke in an interview with Reuters, Ukrinform reports.
"They (Ukrainians – ed.) are under assault and we have to help get them through this period of time, we've got to harden their existing assets," Granholm told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of an annual Transatlantic Energy and Climate Cooperation (P-TECC) conference in the Romanian capital Bucharest.
"[W]e are planning with them for what does the Ukrainian grid of the future look like," she said. "So it might involve micro-reactors. It might involve SMRs. It definitely will involve distributed generation of solar and wind coupled with batteries. So that work is being done now," she added.
Read also: Ukraine, UK pursue cooperation in nuclear industryAccording to the energy secretary, new nuclear power plants can become part of the future energy gdir if they are designed in a way that is secure.
As reported earlier, in January 2024, Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy announced plans to start the construction of four new nuclear reactors at the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant. The Ukrainian state nuclear power company Energoatom also signed an agreement with Westinghouse to build new reactors.
The deal laid down the deployment of nine AR1000 reactors in the country, Westinghouse Executive Vice President for Corporate Affairs Margaret Cosentino said.
As reported by Ukrinform, the Ukrainian authorities expect to start the construction of four new nuclear reactors as early as this summer or fall.
In April 2024, Energoatom and Holtec International signed an agreement on setting up in Ukraine the facilities for the production and manufacture of nuclear systems, structures, and components for small modular reactors, storage and transportation systems for spent nuclear fuel.
