Ukraine: Is US ownership of nuclear power plants realistic?

According to the US, the best way to protect Ukrainian nuclear power plants would be by handing them over to the Americans.

This, at least, is what US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said in a statement after a phone call between the two presidents, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

However, the Ukrainian president apparently interpreted the phone call on March 19 somewhat differently.

He said that they could talk about investments, "but we only talked about one nuclear power plant that is occupied," Zelenskyy told journalists.

The plant he referred to is the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which was occupied by the Russian army shortly after the start of Russia's large-scale offensive in February 2022.

Three other power plants remain under Ukrainian control.

After their public clash in Washington earlier in February, Zelenskyy and Trump have been mending tiesImage: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/ AP Photo/picture alliance | Al Drago/UPI Photo/IMAGO

Outcry from the Ukrainian opposition

The US proposal has meanwhile sparked a public debate in Ukraine.

"First we gave away our nuclear weapons and now they want to take away our nuclear power plants too," Iryna Herashchenko, co-chair of the opposition group 'European Solidarity', wrote on Telegram.

In 1994, in accordance with the so-called Budapest Memorandum, Russia withdrew all Soviet nuclear weapons from Ukraine. In return, the US and Russia guaranteed Ukraine its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Herashchenko's parliamentary colleague, Oleksiy Honcharenko, even suspected that the Ukrainian president himself offered the US the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. "He asked for help with the reconstruction, and the US didn't think twice and is now talking about all our nuclear power plants," he wrote in a post on Facebook.

"First, we offered rare earths, which no one asked us about, and now nuclear power," he added. He then asked Zelenskyy to stop talking to Trump. Otherwise, he writes blatantly sarcastically, Ukraine will end up with nothing but fertile soil.

The Russian demolition of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant caused the reservoir to dry up.Image: Volodymyr Osadchy

Quest for security guarantees

Mychajlo Hontschar, head of the Ukrainian Center for Global Studies "Strategy XXI", criticizes the potential handover of nuclear power plants to the US in a more objective way.

"It is about nuclear safety," he told DW. "There must only be one operator, namely Energoatom," he said.

He emphasized that the Ukrainian state-owned company has to remain the owner.

"Even if we look at this from a business perspective, as the US proposes, what will we get from them in return if they take over all Ukrainian nuclear power plants? There is no answer to that," he told DW.

"There is a lack of concrete security guarantees from the US," Honchar said, pointing out that several US companies were working on the development of gas fields in Ukraine until 2022. However, they left Ukraine after the Russian invasion began.

Until 2022, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was also operated entirely with nuclear fuel from the US supplier Westinghouse. This did not prevent them from being occupied by the Russians, Honchar said, adding that "transferring ownership of nuclear power plants would be a deceptive deal."

In his view, the Ukrainians would give up their assets, but the Americans would simply walk away in an emergency.

He also said that the current US leadership is not aware of the extent of the damage caused by Russian troops to the Zaporizhzhia plant.

"The Russian demolition of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant led to the decline of the nuclear power plant. The reservoir has dried up and a lack of water means that at most two of the six reactor units can be operated. Trump's team will not be able to do any business with it," the energy expert said.

Also, President Zelenskyy stated that freeing the nuclear power plant would not be enough to start producing electricity; the corresponding infrastructure, a secure water supply and personnel would be required as well, he said.

A chance to liberate the plant?

Volodymyr Omelchenko from the Kyiv Razumkov Research Center, however, took a different view.

In his opinion, an American takeover of Ukrainian nuclear power plants could be very interesting for Ukraine.

"If the US succeeds in bringing the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the associated infrastructure in the city of Enerhodar under Ukrainian control, Ukraine could set up a company to operate the nuclear power plant, through which the US could be involved as a partner," he told DW, adding that "this would be positive for Ukraine."

"The nuclear power plant would supply consumers, bring in money into the state budget and the safety problem would be solved," he said.

Russia, on the other hand, is not able to guarantee the safety of the power plant, as Russian personnel were unfamiliar with the plant's special features, he explained.

"The US offer is good and Ukraine should accept it," Omelchenko said.

Russia has been in control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant since 2022Image: Andrey Borodulin/AFP

'Russia will not let go of the plant'

However, Ukrainian nuclear energy expert Olha Koscharna sees the plan as problematic.

"All Ukrainian nuclear power plants are state-owned and cannot simply be privatized, partly due to financial obligations to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development," she told DW.

She also doubts that Russia would be even prepared to give up the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as they aim to connect it to the Russian energy grid.

"I think the nuclear power plant can only be liberated by military means. All calls, resolutions and proposals from the US have had no effect on Russia," Koscharna told DW.

In her view, the nuclear power plant is a trophy for Russia, which could be used to blackmail Ukraine at some point. "Russia will not let go of the nuclear power plant," she said.

In an interview with DW, former Ukrainian Energy and Environment Minister Oleksiy Orchel also emphasized that Ukrainian laws restrict the transfer of strategic facilities into private ownership.

In his opinion, however, this could be reconsidered in the case of nuclear power plants if it served the country's security interests.

"If certain objects were owned by the US, the likelihood of Putin deliberately destroying them would at least be lower," Orschel said.

This article was originally published in Ukrainian.