Construction of the first reactor started under the
Soviet Union in 1981 and the first unit was put in operation in late 1987. Construction of the second reactor started in 1983 with plans to finish it in 1991. In 1990, however, construction was stopped as part of a moratorium on new plant construction introduced due to public mistrust following the
Chernobyl disaster. Construction was completed only in August 2004 after the moratorium was lifted. Since 1992, it has been guarded by the
3rd NPP Protection Battalion. Two more VVER-1000 reactors were under construction: construction of the third reactor started in September 1985 and the fourth reactor in June 1986. Construction was stopped in 1990 when they were 75% and 28% complete, respectively. An intergovernmental agreement on the resumption of construction was signed between Ukraine and Russia in June 2010. In February 2011, Energoatom and
Atomstroyexport signed a contract agreement for the completion of reactors 3 and 4. They should have been commissioned in 2018 and 2020, respectively. Feasibility study of reactors 3 and 4 was conducted by Kyiv Institute Energoproekt. Following the
Russian attack on Ukraine going on since February 2014 with varying intensity the Ukrainian government of
Arseniy Yatseniuk formally terminated the agreement with Russia in September 2015. In August 2016 an agreement with
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power was made to assist with the completion of reactors 3 and 4, but little progress was made. In 2020 a Ukrainian working group assessed the safety of the old cranes on the site needed to progress construction work. Energoatom considered disconnecting unit 2 from the Ukrainian power grid and connecting it to the Burshtyn energy island centered around the coal powered
Burshtyn TES, which up to 2022 was the only part of Ukraine connected to the
European power grid, to facilitate exports to Poland and Hungary. In 2019 the Ministry of Energy created a consortium, Ukraine Power Bridge Company Limited, to progress the project, but as of 2020 the project was not agreed. In February 2025, Ukraine's
Verkhovna Rada approved a plan to purchase unused VVER-1000 equipment from Bulgaria's cancelled
Belene Nuclear Power Plant to complete units 3 and 4. ==AP1000 reactors==