Valentin Mezhevich, first vice chairman of Federation Council Committee on Natural Monopolies

– In the past two years the number of events at the Russian NPPs has been as low as never before

On July 29 Prime Minister of Russia, Chairman of United Russia party Vladimir Putin held a government conference on nuclear energy development in Elektrostal.

I perfectly remember how people reacted to the start of reforms in the nuclear sector two years ago. Many wondered how one could change something in a sector related to the nuclear and energy security of the country.

Today, when the reforms are well underway and when we already have such new big players as Atomenergoprom OJSC and Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, we can say for sure that it was an absolutely correct decision.

I would like to point out that in our country any reforms generate certain apprehensions. Today, we can say that the reforms we started two years ago have yielded tangible results. In the past two years the number of events at nuclear power plants has dropped to all-time low level. We are among the world’s leaders in nuclear safety. Only Japanese NPPs are safer. The electricity production and sales are steadily growing. In Jan-June 2008 the gross income of our nuclear companies grew by 47% as against Jan-June 2007. That’s exactly what Putin said during the conference. He pointed out that the initial stage went off without problems.

For me the key point of Putin’s speech was the focus on the intensified development of our network infrastructure. Today, our NPPs are suffering greatly from the poor development of our networks and from the so-called control restrictions. To remind, the lack of networks was the key obstacle to plans to build new nuclear power plants in 2007–2020 and, particularly, to the project to finish the construction of the 5th unit of Kursk NPP. This was made known to Putin during the conference. In this light, Putin’s words can be regarded as an instruction to solve the problem of networks. In fact, this is the new priority of the Government in the energy sector.

The nuclear power industry is facing no less serious tasks. The federal target program “Nuclear Power Technologies of New Generation” will be ready by Nov 2008, which means that next year Rosatom will have to start putting into practice the closed fuel cycle project – the cherished and yet fantastic idea to create a kind of nuclear perpetuum mobile.

I would like to point out that the Government’s approval of the work done so far in the nuclear sector has confirmed that our nuclear industry is moving in the right direction and will enjoy further support of our Government.