Ukraine MPs expected to vote next week on law needed for 2 new nuclear units, source says

KYIV (Reuters) - Ukraine's parliament is expected to vote next week on a law needed to build and start up two new nuclear power units, an industry source told Reuters on Wednesday, in a step that would support the country as its energy system comes under frequent Russian missile attacks.

The new reactors will be built at the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant in western Ukraine and equipped with Russian-designed equipment that Kyiv wants to import from Bulgaria, Ukrainian energy officials have said.

Ukraine had planned last June to sign a deal to buy two nuclear reactor bodies from Bulgaria to compensate for the loss of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant with six reactors but was unable to do so due to the lack of a law paving the way for such a step.

The new law has been opposed by a number of lawmakers who have argued that calculations of the construction costs in the context of the war with Russia were not transparent.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday urged parliament to support the law, calling the project to complete the power units "the key to Ukraine's energy independence and the energy stability of the region".

Since the loss of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine relies on nuclear power from three operating power plants in the country, totalling nine reactors, including two currently in operation at the Khmelnytskyi plant. Electricity from nuclear power plants covers about 60% of the country's power needs.

Construction of the third and fourth reactors at Khmelnytskyi began in the 1980s but was frozen.

Energy Minister German Galushchenko told Reuters last year that if Ukraine were to get the reactor vessels, it would take 2-1/2 years to get unit three up and running.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Hugh Lawson)