– In 2014, Rosatom signed a number of agreements with various countries, including EU members. Despite a challenging economic and political situation, the long-term contract protfolio exceeded 100 billion US dollars. In all appearance, sanctions have not affected the Russian nuclear industry, have they?

– This is not to say that we have not been affected by sanctions. Yes, there have been no specific sectoral sanctions against Rosatom but we see attempts at influencing countries that sign contracts with us.

We even see clear attempts at manipulating information. Just recently the Financial Times, a reputable newspaper, reported that the European Commission did not approve a Russian-Hungarian deal, which is not true. The Hungarian Government is now demanding to refute these allegations.

Then Reuters published a report that the construction in Turkey was behind the schedule. In its turn, the Turkish Ministry of Energy claimed it was not true.

However, these attempts speak to the fact that our opponents have no other methods. To some extent, it is a compliment to the Russian nuclear industry as it means they would not succeed in fair competition – our products are competitive.

– What is the future of the Jordan project after the intergovernmental agreement has been signed?

– Now we have an 18-month preparatory stage to survey the site, conduct a feasibility study, assess environmental impact and project economics, and build a financial model. Then comes the construction stage. After that, the nuclear power station will be in operation for 60 to 80–100 years, followed by a 10-year decommissioning period.

Our ability to offer comprehensive solutions is a key to our foreign partners. Jordan officials told us about it. Their decision to construct a nuclear power plant means for them both energy security and transition to new technology that is why we include staff training in our offer.

By the way, Jordan students and post-graduates have already begun their studies in Russian universities. The work is ongoing between the Russian Nuclear Supervision Agency and its Jordan counterpart, along with advanced training of the staff. It is clear that national technology is rising to a new level, which is very important for those who think about the country’s future.

Russia is almost the only country able to establish end-to-end strategic partnership as we offer all our partners in Hungary, India, Bangladesh, Turkey, Finland, Vietnam and Belarus both nuclear plant construction and secure supply of fuel. We have sufficient reserves in Russia and other countries to provide all our power stations, including those designed and under construction, with nuclear fuel.

– Along with Middle East countries, India and China are other promising priority markets for Russia. What is the progress in cooperation with these countries?

– Despite difficulties arising in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and causing delays (the Government postponed the unit startup), we fulfilled all of our obligations and built cutting-edge nuclear power units, with the first of them launched after the Fukushima disaster in compliance with latest safety requirements.

This is the reason why we signed a new contract for two other units to be constructed on the same site, and a road map for 12 other units.

China is already able to construct nuclear power stations on its own. However, drawing on the successful operation of the first two units at the Tianwan NPP we began construction of Units 3 and 4 and are finalizing documents for two other units on the same site.

– What do you think helps Russia outperform its competitors in international nuclear power plant tenders?

– Many of our partners, including those from the Middle East, told us in less official talks that, along with reliability and safety of Russian nuclear technologies and economic efficiency of our offering, the decisive factor is that we always fulfill our obligations.

Many were closely watching the construction process at Bushehr in Iran. The contract was concluded back in the late 90s. No one had ever done anything like this – we resumed construction of a facility abandoned 30 years before. The construction process had been started by Germany, and contract prices did not match the current market.

In addition, we guarantee our partners any assistance in nuclear and radiation safety, spent nuclear fuel disposal, nuclear waste management and improvement of related laws. In other words, we offer end-to-end services and involve local contractors in the construction process. Gaining experience, they want to go with us to other countries.

– Did the Bushehr Project in Iran serve as a proxy for the entry of modern Russian technologies into foreign markets?

– We worked on the project despite attempts at pressing us from different sides. The project was completed as nobody had ever done before.

You know, politics is politics but solid expertise is much more appreciated in the professional world, among engineers. Power Engineering, the oldest US engineering magazine, named the Bushehr NPP and Kudankulam Unit 1 in India the ‘Projects of the Year’.

Do you understand what it means in the current political environment to recognize Rosatom’s project as winners? Whatever it takes, they did it because there are no peer projects in terms of technology.

– In recent years, Rosatom has begun expansion into new fuel markets, particularly fuel for Western design reactors. What are the prospects in this field and how can you outperform competitors with a multi-year experience in these technologies?

– We like taking part in tenders and believe them to be the best way to show suppliers and consumers that our offer is competitive. This is the reason why we compete openly on the market of Western design reactors. Yes, there are differences. Our fuel assemblies differ by design and appearance. Why do we call Western design fuel ‘TVS Kvadrat’? Because it has a square section (‘Kvadrat’ means ‘square’ in Russian), it has a different design.

We believe that safety is a top priority, and so is our reputation. We spent much time to develop the technology for Western design fuel. This is the only way in the nuclear industry to make a new product so that no problems appear as it happened in the Czech Republic and Ukraine where they tried to load Russian reactors with another supplier’s fuel without due study and preparation.

In association with AREVA, we supplied fuel and its components to nuclear power stations in the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom for almost 20 years. Simultaneously, we were developing our own fuel design for Western reactors. The first fuel was loaded in 2014. But no hurry, our reputation is a key. We understand that political environment is challenging. Even the smallest fault will not be forgiven.

– Have you already done trial loading?

– We began loading the fuel into Western design reactors, and now we are doing trial runs. This is a very attractive market for us, with a size of tens of billions dollars. We are glad to enter this market.

– Are you talking about power plants only? Or can Russian technologies be used in research reactors?

– We have also developed fuel for research reactor (the so-called plate-type fuel). Last year we signed a contract to supply it for the high flux reactor in the Netherlands.

It is clear that the decision of our Dutch colleagues was not motivated politically. They chose us because we proved functionality, reliability and economic efficiency of this fuel.