The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved the implementation of a strategically important project — the construction of a plant to manufacture fuel assemblies for nuclear power plants. The facility is planned to be located in Mykolaiv region, near the city of Yuzhnoukrainsk, which serves as the satellite city of the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant. The relevant decision was adopted by the government on March 25 following a proposal from the Ministry of Energy, according to an official statement published on the government’s website.
The project involves the creation of a nuclear facility that will manufacture fuel for Ukraine’s nuclear reactors. Energoatom, the national company that operates all of the country’s nuclear power plants, described the decision as strategic and said it opens a new chapter in the development of Ukraine’s nuclear energy sector, particularly in strengthening energy independence.
The project is not a new initiative: it had already received support at the local level in 2025. Following Cabinet approval, the next step will be the development of detailed design documentation and the completion of a comprehensive state review, which is required for facilities of such complexity and safety importance.
Fuel assembly production in Ukraine is planned to be established using the technology of U.S.-based Westinghouse, one of Ukraine’s key partners in the nuclear energy sector. Importantly, in 2024 Westinghouse officially recognized one of Energoatom’s subsidiaries, Atomenergomash, as a qualified supplier of nuclear fuel components for VVER-type reactors used at Ukrainian nuclear power plants. This indicates that Ukraine already has a certain industrial and technological base for implementing such a project.
According to Energoatom’s plans, the first domestically produced fuel assembly could be loaded into a reactor as early as 2027. In the longer term, the company aims to achieve a significant level of localization: about half of nuclear fuel demand is expected to be covered by domestic production, while the remainder will be supplied by Westinghouse.
Thus, the construction of the fuel assembly plant is part of Ukraine’s broader strategy to reduce dependence on external nuclear fuel suppliers, strengthen energy security, and develop its own high-tech manufacturing capabilities in the nuclear sector.
