Husein Chechenov, member of Federation Council Sub-Committee on Natural Monopolies

– I am sure that the role of nuclear energy will keep growing

The Committee on Natural Monopolies of the Federation Council and Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation held a guest meeting at ZiO-Podolsk OJSC (Podolsk, Moscow region) on Mar 21. The subject of the meeting was the preparedness of Russia’s power equipment production industry to meet the requirements of the federal target program for the development of the nuclear industry of Russia in 2007–2010 and -2015.

Today, nuclear energy is playing one of the key roles in our country. Tomorrow, it will be the key factor of Russia’s security. That’s why the federal target program for the development of the nuclear industry is very important. I think it is early yet to speak about success. We will certainly have problems and we will have to consolidate all of our efforts to solve them. We must do our best to carry out the program. We must understand that we will either do it or fall back to the level of third-rate countries.

Today, our nuclear industry is quite competitive on the world market. It is a worthy match to such companies as Siemens and Toshiba. In fact, Siemens, Toshiba and Rosatom are the top three corporations on the world nuclear market. Today, we can offer absolutely new technologies and interesting and promising ideas. Rosatom has all prerequisites for gradually replacing oil and gas.

Our current task is to detect and remove legislative obstacles. I, first of all, mean revision of the tax legislation.

In Germany, Japan and the Untied States nuclear companies enjoy strong state support: they are given long-term soft credits and assistance in their export activities. The world nuclear market is big and is growing on a daily basis. Today, more and more countries of Asia-Pacific and even the oil- and gas-rich countries of the Middle East are beginning to show interest in the construction of nuclear power plants. Certainly, each producer wants to get a bigger share of the market. Russia must not lose its leading positions. So, we must provide our industry with strong state support.

I am sure that in the next 100 years the role of the nuclear industry will be steadily growing. Only the countries with strong energy sectors will feel socially and economically secure.