Ukraine and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on Monday signed a loan agreement worth EUR 300 million as part of a comprehensive program to improve the safety of nuclear reactors at Ukrainian nuclear power plants (NPPs).

An Interfax-Ukraine reporter said that the agreement had been signed by Energy and Coal Industry Minister Eduard Stavytsky, Acting President of the Energoatom Nuclear Energy Generating Company Vissarion Kim and EBRD Director in Ukraine Andre Kuusvek.

"This project is very important for Ukraine in the context of maintaining a high degree of safety at its nuclear reactors," Kuusvek said.

The allocation of funds will start in 2013, the term of the loan is 15 years, and the interest rate is euro Libor +1%.

As reported, on March 12, 2013, the EBRD decided to participate in a comprehensive safety upgrade program for the operating nuclear power units of Ukraine with a EUR 300 million loan.

Euratom, the European Atomic Energy Community, will provide EUR 300 million towards the total cost of the program, which is estimated at EUR1.4 billion.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine declared it reasonable for Energoatom to raise a loan of EUR 600 million from the EBRD and Euratom to implement a comprehensive program to improve the safety of Ukrainian NPPs.

The Ukrainian government, with cabinet resolution No. 1270 of December 7, 2011, approved a comprehensive program to increase the safety of reactors at NPPs for 2012-2017 worth a total of UAH 12.453 billion. According to the document, the sources of program financing will be loans from the EBRD and Euratom worth UAH 8 billion, and UAH 4.453 billion of Energoatom's own funds.

The implementation of the program will allow the country to bring the level of safety of Ukrainian nuclear units to international standards, as well as ensure the full implementation of Ukraine's international obligations on improving the safety of the existing nuclear power plants.

Energoatom operates all four of the nuclear power plants in Ukraine – Zaporizhia NPP, Yuzhnoukrainsk NPP, Rivne NPP, and Khmelnytsky NPP, with fifteen generating units outfitted with water-cooled fast-breeder reactors with an installed generating capacity of 13.835 gigawatts.