Ukraine will launch a new strategy next week, placing a greater emphasis on nuclear energy development by 2030, said Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov on Friday.

Safeguarding the country's energy security tops the government's agenda at the current stage, Ukraine's Interfax news agency quoted the prime minister as saying.

There are five nuclear power stations in Ukraine, which provide half the electricity consumed throughout the country, said Yekhanurov. Ukraine plans to increase the share of electricity output generated by nuclear power stations from the current 50 percent to 66 percent, he added.

Meanwhile, Ukraine also wants to increase electricity export to Europe and Russia, said Yekhanurov.

He said Ukraine had to pay 120 million U.S. dollars annually to Russia to have its nuclear waste stored and reprocessed there. Ukraine would hopefully lower the expense to 15-25 million dollars if it had its own storage facility for nuclear waste.

Ukraine intended to set up a nuclear fuel circulation system within 10 to 12 years, which would relieve Ukraine's energy reliance on others, he said.

Regarding the country's overall energy blueprint, Yekhanurov said, apart from the effort being applied to developing nuclear energy, Ukraine also planned to increase its annual natural gas yield to 30 billion cubic meters by 2009-2010.

The goal would be attainable as a natural gas reserve of 1.5 trillion cubic meters had been found in the country's northeastern region, said the prime minister.

Ukraine imports most of its oil and natural gas, which make up 80 percent of Ukraine's total energy consumption. It now produces 20 billion cubic meters of gas every year, a quarter of its annual consumption.

Kiev began its intensive planning for energy diversification after a bitter row with Moscow on gas prices at the beginning of the year.

Source: Xinhua