Rosatom is the world’s only company to operate in every sector of the nuclear energy industry, from uranium mining and nuclear construction to maintenance, decommissioning, and radioactive waste management. The company’s portfolio of overseas projects is growing every year. Rosatom is now a global leader in terms of nuclear construction projects in progress.
The Russian state-run nuclear corporation differs from foreign peers in its ability to offer customers integrated solution, Andrei Rozhdestvin, Vice-President of Rosatom Western Europe, said in an interview to The Politico newspaper. Rosatom’s offer centers around a VVER-1200 power reactor, with its design already proven in a reference project, a recently started unit at Novovoronezh-2. Similar reactor units are going to be built in Finland, Hungary, Turkey, Bangladesh and Egypt. The integrated solution also covers fuel deliveries, maintenance, modernization, management of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste, workforce training, and assistance in licensing and standardization.
“Vertical integration of our value chain gives us a unique opportunity to come up with turnkey solutions, which are particularly in demand among emerging nuclear energy countries. Unlike the competition, our latest generation of power reactors (3 and 3+) have already been built and put in operation. Before offering our products to customers, we test them to have reference projects,” says Andrei Rozhdestvin.
According to him, nuclear power plant maintenance and modernization services are Europe’s most promising market segment for Rosatom. This is best exemplified by the Russian-French life extension project at Bulgaria’s Kozloduy. Another example is a running contract for the modernization of four operating reactors at Hungary’s Paks and delivery of machinery and equipment for this project.
Nuclear decommissioning is one more important segment of the European nuclear market. At present, Nukem Technologies Engineering Services GmbH, a German-based subsidiary of AtomStroyExport [Rosatom’s foreign engineering division] is decommissioning a power reactor in Philippsburg (Germany). “In the long run, we are also considering a possibility of building new generation capacity in Europe. There is also a good outlook for fuel supplies to Western-designed nuclear stations. Our contract with Vattenfall is a major achievement and a foundation for the expansion into this new segment of the European nuclear market,” Andrei Rozhdestvin concludes.
