“Derzhzrada” during energy terrorism: what are “Energoatom” and the Ministry of Energy doing while the invaders are hitting the thermal power plant

Damaged after shelling, Ukraine's energy sector needs renewal, new components, opportunities for generation distribution and protection. Against this background, Energoatom’s favorite project on the completion of the third and fourth units of the Khmelnitsky NPP was sent to the Ministry of Energy and NAEK Energoatom through the Cabinet of Ministers to the Verkhovna Rada

They didn’t bother too much, having stamped the completion figures from 2018 into the project. But they honestly wrote that the calculation figures are complete bullshit and will then be finished off with a jigsaw (reformatted). Which ones? So the officials themselves have no idea. Considering that the feasibility study six years ago did not suffer from realism (the price was reduced by at least half), it turned out to be a typical sale of a pig in a poke.

The submission of the project coincided with renewed energy terror, so the priority of the document raised even more questions. In the coming years, the energy system will not need weakly maneuverable nuclear power at all. Moreover, there is no money for completion and none is expected in the coming years. But this does not mean that you cannot try to imitate work.

In order to somehow justify themselves, the initiators of the project, in the best traditions of Baron Munchausen, fantasized that in 2050 the energy system would have 100 million kW of power, including 23 million from nuclear power plants. Everything is “normal” here - these figures are included in the so-called Energy Strategy, which triumphantly failed in London, causing “zero interest” from investors.

And all this fuss is happening at a time when the system needs distributed generation, and not abandoned ruins and money stuck for many years.

One of the blocks of the Khmelnytsky NPP, the fourth, can generally be designed as an optical illusion. You can see its ruins and even touch them, but in order to “complete” something there, you must at least clear the construction site of them. Actually, despite a bunch of statements, they never intended to build it, and even now little has changed.

Also, the compilers, in the best traditions of the 90s, “threw” the local district councils. According to the law, they need to allocate 10% of the construction cost for social security in the 30-kilometer zone around the nuclear power plant (according to the previous feasibility study, it was more than seven billion hryvnia). The ministry proposes to reduce payments twenty times - to 0.5% of the cost. By the way, in the explanatory note they did not specify the new figure, modestly writing “up to 10%,” and it’s true - half a percent is less than ten.

Justification of the level “to whom I owe, I forgive everyone.” They wrote that since Energoatom bears a large social burden on compensating the population’s tariffs, which is the honest truth, it means it cannot pay the locals either. Therefore (and why not) the social burden from NAEC must be completely transferred to the budget. Bingo!

A small nuance was missed. When local councils previously agreed on construction permits, they agreed on a social package of 10%. Only for the third block, the construction of which is still more or less realistic, obligations to Netishinskaya (where, by the way, nuclear scientists live) and Izyaslavskaya district councils are reduced from UAH 3.7 billion to less than 200 million. The difference is noticeable, because they want to issue a separate discount by law. So that NAEC can then, sadly roll its eyes, answer that it’s not them, but the machinations of parliament.

But if this innovation is “petty hooliganism,” then a number of points lead to more serious charges.

Thus, it is assumed that the new units will operate for as long as 80 years - half a century of the main term, and then another 30 years of extended life. In general, until the early 2100s.

For reference, high treason, i.e. an act intentionally committed by a citizen of Ukraine to the detriment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability, defense capability, state, economic or information security of Ukraine: switching to the side of the enemy during an armed conflict, espionage, provision of a foreign state in carrying out subversive activities against Ukraine - is punishable by imprisonment for a term of twelve to fifteen years with or without confiscation of property, and in conditions of martial law, - shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of fifteen years or life imprisonment with confiscation of property.