30.11.2007 // Nizhniy Novgorod Business Daily

Interview with Director of Atomenergoproekt V.Limarenko about the late Nov conference on production and supply of equipment for NPPs

In late November Nizhniy Novgorod became real “nuclear Mecca”: the city hosted a conference on the problems of production and supply of equipment for nuclear power plants. For the first time ever this top secret industry is becoming an open and transparent sector selecting partners on a tender basis and setting game rules for years ahead.

Atomenergoproekt institute played the most active role in the conference. Before the conference we asked the director of the institute Valery Limarenko: “What was the reason for such serious changes in the industry?”

— The state program for the construction of nuclear power plants is based on a hypothesis confirmed by numerous calculations: i.e. it is much more expedient to invest money in nuclear energy than in any other type of energy. Oil and gas are getting more and more expensive and are not endless. So, nuclear power plants are the optimal source of energy for our quickly developing country. The program is based on a “road map”: a document specifying where and when we are going to build nuclear power plants. We are N1 in the list.

We are engineering companies, including Atomenergoproekt (Nizhniy Novgorod), set up for managing NPP construction and, consequently, its quality and cost. In order to solve this task, one should be a universal company providing design, supply, construction and start-up services, at one and the same time. Atomenergoproekt is such a company.

In order to effectively manage quality and cost, we use several technologies, one of them being creation of competitive environment.

As soon as we got reorganized into an engineering company, we started consolidating the leading construction companies of Russia. We told them about our project, studied their experience and made contracts with several dozens of companies. At that moment, most of the construction companies working in the nuclear industry were either bankrupts or at the verge of bankruptcy. Years of stagnation had left them without money and contracts.

The involvement in the program gave them a chance for revival and development: for obtaining modern equipment, designing new technologies, etc..

Today, we are organizing tenders for the purchase of equipment for ongoing NPP construction projects: unlike ordinary purchase tenders, here, we give preference to the quality and compliance with standards over the price. A company wishing to participate in such a tender should, first of all, have all necessary licenses and good business reputation. One more peculiarity is that we conduct such tenders at the stage of designing so we can fit the plant to the parameters of the equipment it will get in 5–8 years.

The past conference was exactly for discussing all the above problems with representatives of our biggest companies. We presented our vision of the program, while the companies presented their services and technologies. It was a kind of fair. The conference gave a start to the new stage of the development of our nuclear industry.

— Mr.Limarenko, but some 15–20 years ago that very industry was put to a standstill at its height and now after so many years of oblivion our government has started making plans for decades ahead without asking people if they agree?

What has happened? Has the public opinion changed so drastically or, probably, our government thinks that one shouldn’t always listen to what people say?

— The government understands that without developing nuclear power engineering we will not be able to develop our country. Bad or good but this is reality.

Today, our country is actively developing its economy and it needs energy that will not end in some 30–50 years as oil or gas will do – we need some inexhaustible source of energy. We have no other alternative: either we produce energy and go ahead or we lag behind the world.

Of course, we still remember the lesson of Chernobyl and, today, we are designing and building plant that are much safer than the ones built in the past. Our present technologies provide strong guarantees against new Chernobyls.

So, I can say that the nuclear project is one of the locomotives that are taking our economy back to its leading positions in the world.

— This is a very promising prospect. But what is the key obstacle to it?

— The key obstacle is our mentality. We must learn to live and think in a new way.

— Mr.Limarenko, if our city is the outpost of the nuclear project, then, why is 2020 the earliest date we can expect to have a nuclear power plant here?

— Our governor is not just actively interested, he is actively cooperating with nuclear power engineers. As you may know, S.Kiriyenko and V.Shantsev have signed an agreement clearly specifying all the aspects of their cooperation. But we also have objective reality. If we move according to the schedule, the design of Nizhniy Novgorod NPP will be ready in 2011, while the construction will be started in 2011.

If, today, we announce a tender the districts of Nizhniy Novgorod region for the right to have an NPP in their territory, they will queue up for it — for it is really worthwhile for a district to have a plant that can produce energy for a whole region.
 
Galina Mitkina