Principle theme

06 September 2010

Rosatom widens “window to Asia”

Russia’s State nuclear energy corporation Rosatom is building up its presence in Asian countries. More nuclear power-generating units are due to be built in the next few years in China and Vietnam. The Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko reached agreement to that end when visiting the two nations. Rosatom has already opened a window to China by mounting the first two power-generating units of the Tianwan nuclear power plant. A contract is likely to be signed before the year is out for building the second phase of the plant with Russian assistance. There’s a fierce struggle on for the presence on the Chinese market, with US, French and Japanese companies, among others, exerting themselves to attain the objective. But Rosatom feels confident, since the Chinese claim that the two units that it has built are most reliable and safe. Rosatom says it is also prepared to build nuclear power stations with BN-800 fast-neutron reactors in China. Incidentally, in July China saw the effective launch of a pilot reactor on fast neutrons, built by Russian experts, among others. Russia is the world leader in developing this segment of nuclear power engineering. But it stands to reason to ask just how close cooperation in the area should be, and whether things can come to a handover of technologies? This is what an expert with the National Energy Security Foundation Alexander Pasechnik says on the subject. Actually, technologies are needed precisely to be effectively introduced and used as a competitive advantage, Alexander Pasechnik says. In other words, Russia is not about to sell the fast-neutron reactor technology to the Chinese, the technology in question will just be used in China’s new reactors, and the reactor will be naturally serviced by the Chinese personnel. Therefore Russia will in any event supply fuel assemblies to China. Any technology-related leakage is most unlikely. As for Vietnam, the Russia-suggested project of Vietnam’s first-ever nuclear power plant meets up-to-date technological standards and safety requirements. The construction of Vietnam’s first nuclear power plant is due to get under way in 2014, with the plant’s capacity due to makeup 2,000 Megawatts per year. Here’s more from Alexander Pasechnik. The Soviet Union, Alexander Pasechnik says, was energetically cooperating with Vietnam, so Moscow and Hanoi have since retained the favourable diplomatic climate and economic realities. Vietnam suffers from power shortages, so it naturally badly needs electric power. Therefore Rosatom’s expansion is perfectly founded. It is Asian nations that will in the next few years become the driving force of world economic development. They will therefore need increasingly great amounts of fuels. This will prove the determining factor in the strategy for international cooperation of the Russian state corporation Rosatom, which invariably offers the entire range of services to its partners. In other words, Rosatom not only builds reactors, but guarantees fuel supplies throughout the service life of the reactors in question.

Back to the topic of the day