Semyon Dragulsky, President of Russian Union of Power Efficiency

– As head of Rosatom State Corporation, Kiriyenko will keep up the pace of development of the industry

I welcome the appointment of Kiriyenko as head of Rosatom State Corporation. He will keep up the pace of development of our nuclear industry, which is important for preserving our leading positions on the world nuclear energy market.

The key achievement of Kiriyenko and his team in the last two years is the completion of the reforms in the sector. It was a hard and responsible job. In Feb 2007 we adopted a law on the establishment of integrated civil nuclear holding Atomenergoprom, in Dec – a law on the establishment of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation. This structure will preserve the unity of our nuclear industry: it will control 100% of shares of Atomenergoprom, the nuclear weapons complex, research institutes and nuclear and radiation safety companies. The goals of the reform are clear: by 2030 Russia should increase the share of nuclear power plants in its total electricity production from present 16% to 25%-30%; our defense industry should preserve its potential and implement new projects; we should enhance our competitiveness on the world market of high nuclear technologies.

One more achievement of Rosatom is the launch of a unique nuclear power plant, Tianwan NPP in China, as well as the victories in the tenders for the right to supply nuclear fuel to Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Due to Rosatom’s active efforts, this year the US Court of International Trade satisfied the claim of Techsnavexport and ruled that uranium enrichment is a service rather than a product and is not subject to antidumping restrictions. The Court obliged the US Department of Commerce to lift antidumping restrictions on Russian uranium enrichment services (112% antidumping duty imposed in 1992). In May 2007 the Stockholm Court of Arbitration dismissed the claim of Global Nuclear Services Supply (GNSS) against Techsnabexport (Tenex) for recovery of its lost profit worth almost $1bln. It was a big success in overcoming unfair barriers to Russian nuclear products on one of the biggest markets in the world, the United States.