— The adoption of new law will revive the nuclear power sector

“The adoption of the new law will revive the nuclear power sector,” the deputy of the Duma of Khanti-Mansi Autonomous District-Yugra Aleksey Andreyev said while commenting on the State Duma’s approval of the first reading of the bill “The Peculiarities of the Management of the Property and Shares of Organizations Using Nuclear Power.”

Andreyev reminded that energy experts forecast electricity shortfall on the domestic market in the coming decade. “In order to avoid this, we should start implementing decisions for generating capacities development. One of the effective decisions in the sphere is exactly the initiative for restructuring and developing the nuclear power sector. Rosatom’s program says that the nuclear power industry will be able to produce additional 3,000 MW by 2010,” Andreyev said.

“Today, the share of the nuclear power industry in the total energy balance is low – 15%-16%, while in the developed countries this figure is 32% on an average. Presently, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District is the second biggest electricity producer in the Russian Federation. In 2001 Yugra produced 51,609mln KW/h. The key consumers are material production sector (46%) and municipal housing economy (14%).”

Andreyev said that the produced electricity fully satisfies the needs of the district’s industry and population and is even supplied to Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Region (5%), Tumen region (7%), Ural region (24%). The energy system of Yugra supplies electricity to the federal wholesale market to 57 energy systems of Russia and exports it to Latvia, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan and Belarus.

However, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District may also face electricity shortage in some 5–6 years, if it continues to develop as dynamically as it is developing today. In order to avoid this, the district government is carrying out a centralized policy to simultaneously develop big and small electric power engineering.

Andreyev reminded REGNUM that the government of the district has implemented a target program “Power Saving of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District till 2005.” In order to create a competitive environment and to raise the efficiency of the sector, the district authorities have set up the first fuel-energy exchange; are creating conditions for attracting investments in electric networks and generating capacities. Today, the district administration, Tumenenergo OJSC and YUTEK OJSC are cooperating under a program to reform the municipal energy sector. The key objective of the program is to create stable and solvent electric power generating enterprises, to modernize the local electric networks, to raise the quality and stability of energy supply.

“The introduction of new generating capacities will promote the development of mining on the eastern slope of the Subpolar Ural,” Andreyev said. “Hence, the measures proposed by the bill are of system nature and suggest real mechanisms of helping the nuclear power sector out of the crisis.”

REGNUM News Agency