02.11.2007 // Interfax

Sergey Ivanov: Russian Government should outline mid- and long-term prospects for development of nuclear power machinery complex

We should outline mid- and long-term prospects for the development of our nuclear power machinery complex, First Vice Premier of Russia Sergey Ivanov said today while opening the meeting of the governmental committee on industry, technologies and transport today, Nov 2.

“We should see what we have done for being ready to fulfill our plans in the nuclear power industry and what we should do to effectively organize cooperation between power engineers and machine builders,” Ivanov said.

He said that the oil and gas reserves are gradually coming to an end, nuclear power engineering is becoming the only alternative. “We have no other way out: if we fail to increase nuclear energy production, we will face an energy crisis,” Ivanov said.

He pointed out that the Government has taken a number of measures to develop the nuclear power industry, particularly, it has launched a federal target program for the development of the nuclear industry of Russia in 2007–2010 and -2015.

This program stipulates that we should increase the share of nuclear power plants in the total energy production in Russia to 18% by 2015 and 30% by 2030.

“In order to achieve this goal, we need modern highly competitive nuclear power machinery industry,” Ivanov said.

“Despite the relatively successful post-Soviet period, the industry does not have enough capacities for fulfilling the above tasks, especially as in 2012 we are planning to start launching two new nuclear power units a year. So, starting from 2013 we will need four sets of basic NPP equipment a year,” Ivanov said.

“We should thoroughly analyze the situation in the industry,” Ivanov said.Recently, Ivanov visited a number of nuclear power machinery builders in Poldolsk and is planning to shortly visit Izhora Plants.