KIEV, April 26 – Ukraine should develop its nuclear power industry to help it overcome its economic crisis, as it has no other alternatives, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said.

"We don't have alternatives to nuclear energy in the near ten to twenty years, moreover we will develop it and this year we will start the construction of two power units at Khmelnytsky Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) and a plant for fabrication of nuclear fuel," Azarov said during a meeting on exploitation of power units of nuclear plants at the emergency and technical center of state enterprise Energoatom in Bilohorodka (Kiev region).

The PM stressed that "we are making a real steps for strengthening of our energy independence for the first time over 20 years of our independence."