— Would you tell about starts planned for this year? 

— Three starts are planned. These are two nuclear power units and one thermal unit. This year, we commission Kudankulam-2, Rostov-3 and South Urals SDPP Phase II. In 2006, when the nuclear power development strategy was adopted, only a few could imagine that we would manage to achieve such pace. 

— Would you give some details of Rostov-3 commissioning? What did help reduce construction costs and time? 

— We have managed to reduce the timescale by two months. It is an extremely difficult task. It came up in the past year. Literally, we broke down the unit in constituents and identified the mechanisms, which allowed generating electricity already this December. Today, a power unit is normally built within 60 months on average; we were challenged to make it within 48 months. To this end we have the project management system Multi D. This is the latest technology. We purchase and use only cutting-edge information products. The rest is developments of domestic nuclear specialists. 

— We also would like to ask you about our large-scale projects in the Asian market. 

— We have signed with the Indian colleagues an agreement for construction of Units 3 and 4; they told us they were preparing new sites. I am certain that our cooperation will be long-term, because today the most economically effective and reliable power units in India are the Russian power units. They work with both the French and the Americans, but in terms of technical, economic parameters, and safety aspects. Today, we control about one third of the entire market of design and construction of nuclear power plants. In this field our company is the absolute leader; we intend to strengthen our positions. 

— Let’s speak about NPP construction in Belarus. 

— I would like to note that the Belarus partners have turned out to be most prepared for the start of construction. When we arrived at the construction site, we saw that all engineering utilities were in place, transportation issues were solved, and the site was leveled. That is why we started rather fast and involved Belarus builders in this work; we are ahead of schedule at both power units. We plan to release all facilities on time. Also, we would like the Belarus builders to become our partners in implementation of projects in other countries. 

— What does your company use to attract customers? 

— We have been building our success story for decades. There is the word “reference”. It means that the power units we offer for construction operate successfully and have advantage. People who communicate with us graduated from universities and work at the plants built to our designs. This is the basis to move forward. We are known by deeds of our predecessors. We especially deal with quality improvement issues. These are issues of quality; we have a quality improvement system. These are issues of cost; we have a cost management system. These are issues of time; we have a timescale management system. The governmental policy is aimed at making nuclear power the locomotive of the Russian economy. 

— What projects does the company plan to implement in addition to the core business? 

— We deal with decommissioning of nuclear power plants. We are nearing completion of decommissioning of Ignalina NPP. We operate at a number of facilities for SNF and radwaste management. We have started actively looking into coal fuel chemistry. We continuously move forward. Other spheres of economy should receive 30% of our activities. I believe that one fourth of the portfolio has been built up based on projects, which do not relate to nuclear build.