US, Ukraine may share interest in restarting ZNPP under Ukrainian control – Galushchenko

Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said this during a discussion hosted by the Atlantic Council.

He was responding to a question from the audience regarding U.S. President Donald Trump's idea of potential joint U.S.-Ukrainian ownership of Europe's largest nuclear power plant.

"We share a common interest with the United States in bringing the Zaporizhzhia NPP back under Ukrainian control and restarting the operation of this nuclear power plant. It can open new opportunities for cooperation between us, for example, in the export of electricity. Moreover, we will need more electricity for any project that could be implemented in Ukraine together with the United States. We need more power for the country's large-scale recovery, and that is extremely important," Galushchenko said.

He stressed that leaving the current situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant unresolved is entirely unacceptable.

"If we allow the Russians to keep control of the Zaporizhzhia NPP, even without restarting it, it will be a complete disaster for everything the world has achieved in peaceful nuclear development. We are currently talking about a sort of renaissance in the nuclear industry, but no one will be willing to invest in nuclear energy if one country can seize and occupy the largest nuclear plant in Europe by force and retain control of it, even after the war ends. […] We must demonstrate that no nuclear facility -- large or small -- can be unlawfully seized by force," Galushchenko said.

During the discussion, he also expressed serious concern about Russia's large-scale attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, which pose a grave threat to nuclear safety. This applies not only to the currently disconnected Zaporizhzhia NPP, but also to the three other nuclear power plants still operating in Ukraine. Since August last year, more than 150 incidents have been recorded where Russian missiles or drones flew over or near these facilities.

Galushchenko reminded the audience that Russia carried out a drone strike on the Shelter Structure at the Chornobyl NPP. He also highlighted the extreme danger of deliberate Russian attacks on substations that support nuclear facilities -- a concern Ukraine continues to raise with the IAEA.

"The Russians are deliberately targeting substations that are critically important, causing emergency shutdowns of operational nuclear units. This is the message we consistently include in IAEA resolutions and we urge IAEA experts to visit these substations. Because when there is an emergency shutdown of an operating reactor, we are just one step away from a Fukushima-type scenario -- one step from a nuclear incident. Such actions completely violate all nuclear safety standards," Galushchenko said.