Ukraine hoped to complete the construction of its first nuclear fuel plant in 2015, Energy Minister Eduard Stavytsky said Friday.

"The authorized capital stock of the structure has been set and the pace of construction works allows us to forecast that the plant will be ready in 2015," Stavytsky said during a visit to the plant's site in the central Kirovograd region.

The plant, with a designed capacity of 400 tons of uranium per year, would provide Ukraine with all of its nuclear fuel needs, he said.

The estimated total cost of the project was $462.5 million, including $137 million for the purchase of Russian fuel fabrication technology.

Ukrainian state firm Nuclear Fuel is building the plant jointly with Russian fuel company TVEL.

Despite the Chernobyl disaster on April 26, 1986, Ukraine remains committed to developing its nuclear sector, which generates about half of country's electricity.