We are speaking about Rusatom Overseas – a company promoting Russian nuclear technologies abroad. The NIA is a professional atomic industry association consisting of more than 260 companies, representing nuclear power industry in the country’s government and Parliament and also supporting the commercial interests of its members both in the UK and across the globe.
Apparently, entering this organization for Rosatom means a lot, being an important milestone of Russian-British nuclear relations.
Big plans
The demand of atomic energy worldwide has been growing, most of the EU countries announcing their plans to develop this type of industry and build new NPPs. Today the UK is currently using 19 power units with a total capacity of 10,137 GW. The country’s government is looking forward to changing the out-of-date units for more modern ones, building 8 new stations by 2025. The country doesn’t have its own NPP projects. However there recently have been some complications with contractors, Edward Davey, the Secretary of State for Energy, said the NPP construction program in the country is to be duly implied, since foreign power energy producers are still interested.
According to DECC, the territories of England and Wales, where the new units are to be built, will receive the £1000 (US$1,521) government subsidies per MW installed capacity annually, which will last for 40 years from the moment of the reactor’s launching. The money will be taken from business tax deductions funds, distributed between places and used at the discretion of local authorities for social sphere or economic development.
Potential for collaboration
British market looks quite attractive for the Russian side. “The UK has confirmed its goal to develop atomic energy, – says Sergey Novikov, Rosatom’s Director for Communications. – Our rivals have their projects still on paper while ours are already implied, which means that Rosatom today can fully guarantee that our NPP, constructed at the British territory, will meet absolutely all requirements and the IAEA norms.” Russia’s interest in taking part in British atomic projects was also several times confirmed by the Corporation General Director Sergey Kiriyenko. Russia and the UK have a huge potential for collaboration, including in the third countries, as he believes.
Agreements and roads
This June the two countries agreed to create a joint working group for collaboration in the sphere of peaceful atom. The agreement is documented in the communiqué released after the negotiations in London between the vice PM of the RF Arkady Dvorkovich and Edward Davey, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.
Later, during the Saint-Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) the head of Rosatom Sergey Kiriyenko announced the State Corporation and its British partners soon to produce a road map on Russian participation in British atomic program.
“We have to take a step-by-step approach, since we haven’t worked in Great Britain before, – said Kiriyenko. – We have the support of the Departments of Energy and Industry, besides we have the British Rolls Royce as a partner. Today we are working on the roadmap with governmental organizations together with Rolls Royce and I hope that soon, within the period of several months, we will be able to produce and coordinate it”, – he said.
At the same time, according to the head of Rosatom, we shouldn’t expect fast decisions: “This is process of licensing, of social acceptance, of siting. We have to certify the technology that has already been certified according to European standards but never in Great Britain” – he added.
It is quite possible that the Rusatom’s Overseas entering the NIA would be able to speed up this process.
