Vienna  - Despite the experience of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, the Ukraine plans to build new nuclear power plants, its president Viktor Yushchenko said in Vienna Tuesday.

Ukraine was planning to complete additional reactors by 2013 in order to meet its energy needs, Yushchenko said during an official visit to Austria.

Although nuclear energy remained a sensitive topic in his country following the 1986 reactor meltdown in Chernobyl, "we want to show to the whole world that we are very responsible when it comes to nuclear energy use," he said.

A project to encase and decontaminate the Chernobyl reactor was set to start soon, Yushchenko said.

Ukraine currently operates 15 nuclear reactors and is planning to build 22 more, according to an international nuclear industry association.

Ukraine had invested a lot of money in the modernization of safety systems, new technologies and research, Yushchenko said. (dpa)