KIEV, Oct. 4 – Ukraine on Thursday began construction of its first nuclear fuel manufacturing plant in what Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said is the most ambitious energy project since 1991.

The construction, which is carried out jointly with Russian state-owned nuclear fuel producer TVEL, is expected to take three years and the plant is supposed to be launched in operation in 2015.

“I am very happy we have started realization of such a grandiose project on securing energy independence of our country,” Azarov said in remarks released by his press service. “This is probably the largest such project put on the map of Ukraine” since 1991.

Azarov, along with Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear power and nuclear fuel producer that incorporates TVEL, joined the plant’s ground-breaking ceremony at Smolino, the Kirovohrad region.