Officials at a Russia-controlled nuclear power plant in Ukraine say that they’re ready to allow Bitcoin miners to tap into its power output.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is part of the region occupied by Russia, and officials say they’ll supply energy to Bitcoin miners if a peace deal is brokered.
“It will be able to provide electricity not only to the local population and the facilities that support the population, but also to [crypto] mining farms,” the plant’s representatives told Russian outlet Kommersant.
Since Russian forces captured the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on March 4, 2022, the plant has been operated by Rosenergoatom JSC, a nuclear power plant subsidiary of Rosenergoatom, a Russian state-owned holding company that unifies the Russian civil nuclear industry, according to Kommersant.
The officials were speaking after President Vladimir Putin told Russian business leaders on December 25 that talks between the US and Russia had expanded beyond security and control issues.
The Russian leader said discussions are now centred on American proposals to use the power plant’s output to mine cryptocurrency and to provide electricity to Ukraine.
This proposal would see Russia and the US take joint control of the plant, Putin said.
He said that “American colleagues” had “expressed interest in engaging in mining at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” Kommersant wrote in a separate report.
Florida summit
The comments from the Zaporizhzhia officials come as US President Donald Trump said that an end to the war in Ukraine is “closer than ever” after a two-hour meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Florida on Sunday.
Their discussion centred around a revised peace plan, several key parts of which Russia has already rejected.
Little was said about the future of the contested Donbas region, which Russia seeks to control in its entirety and where the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is located.
Even so, over the weekend, power line repairs began near the power station, which had been damaged several times throughout the war.
The repairs started after the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency brokered a local ceasefire in the region, the agency said.
“[The] IAEA team is monitoring repairs [that are] expected to last a few days, as part of persistent efforts to prevent nuclear [accidents] during [the] military conflict,” the IAEA tweeted.
