Brno is the engineering capital of the Czech Republic, so everything connected with machine building causes great public interest here. There were a lot of young people at the exhibition; young students come in groups to study the exposition materials. Many stop by the booth of Rosatom and “MIR.1200” Consortium , which is the part of the Temelin NPP tender. Ondřej Burian is a postgraduate student of the most prestigious country’s university – Czech Technical University in Prague. He has visited Russia for studying already twice: was at the Novovoronezh and Rostov NPP, at the NIAEP office and at the TVEL plant. “I chose this profession because I wanted to feel confidence in the future, which means a well-paid job and good prospects of working abroad”, – says Ondřej. Entering the University he faced the choice: aviation or nuclear power. The latter won. “This is an interesting profession, although the industry is very complicated. There are several disciplines included: physics, chemistry, engineering. I believe nuclear power to be the most promising for my future career”, – says the student. He has already got some business invitations: there is a chance to work at the Temelin NPP, for instance. But for now Ondřej has decided to stick to the University as a postgraduate and part-time employee. There are only three educational institutions preparing specialists for nuclear power sphere, they are in Prague, Brno and Plzen. There are about 15 people doing the atomic course in the Prague University. “It’s not many, but still more than previous years, when there were only two – three people studying”, – says Frantisek Hrdlicka, the Dean of Engineering Department in the Prague University. Though atomic generation provides about the third part of power in the country, there are just about three students willing to work at a NPP, says Hrdlicka. Most of graduates go to work in the Nuclear Research Institute in Rez.

Billions of Euros and thousands of jobs
Leoš Tomíček, Rusatom Oversear Vice President, comes from the Czech Republic. As a young man he was the one who decided to go studying to Russia: “My love for mathematics brought me to atomic theme as early as in early grades, – he says. – I was at a school specializing in physics and maths in Liberec. At that time I read a lot about physicists and their studies”. By the end of school Leos already knew his future profession. “One of the professors at the Prague University said that if one wanted to be successful in physics he or she should go to Russia”, – he recalls. Thus in 1967 Leoš was one of the Czech guys, along with other youngsters from Hungary, Cuba, Poland and Bulgaria, to become a student of Moscow Power Engineering Institute. “At that time there were many NPPs built in the world, – he says. – There was a big need in specialists and it was very hard to enter such a university”. Leoš had his practice at the construction site of Dukovany and Temelin. Today he is meeting with many of his co-students, one of them a member of the WANO Moscow office.

Leoš Tomíček together with the team of the “MIR.1200” Consortium takes part in finishing of Russian offer for the Temelin tender, the project having become the central topic of the “Atomex-Europe” forum.

The NPP will provide future for Czech engineering industry, as believes Kirill Komarov, Rosatom Deputy Director, who held his welcome speech at the beginning of the event. He reminded, that Rosatom was confirming its readiness to hand in 70% of orders to local companies, should it win the tender. This means billions of Euros and thousands of jobs.

“Our approach suggests active collaboration with local industry and complex localization program” – added Nikolay Drozdov, head of International Business Department. The pool of potential suppliers is already partly established – the State Corporation has qualified 250 Czech companies. However this is not the limit, as Mr Drozdov believes.

Sergey Stepaev, Deputy Director for Capital Investments, spoke about the investment program of the industry. According to him, Rosatom is one of Russia’s major investors. The volume of capital investments program for 2013 is more than EUR 7 billion, with more than 5 billion going to nuclear energy. The Rosenergoatom concern program was compared to other world players. “There are French EDF and Korean KEPCO ahead of us, but we are leaving behind Italian Enel and American Exelon” – Stepaev says.

There will be 10 new power units put into operation in Russia by 2020, and about 20 more – by 2030. Atomic objects have some special features in comparison to civil construction. Thus their material output ratio and the equipment part in the total scope of expenses are higher. During NPP construction one has to purchase 18 000 units of equipment costing almost EUR 2 billion. “That’s why we pay serious attention to work with producers and suppliers, – explains Mr. Stepaev. – Our main task is constructing on schedule following the established budget”.

Chance for development
Lubomir Gogela, the executive member of the country’s engineering cluster, spoke on behalf of dozens of thousands of specialists working at the Czech plants: “Four years ago, having estimated the situation, we decided that atomic engineering is a very crucial direction of the country’s development. We want to establish a powerful group of machine-building companies that will take part in the construction of Temelin. 36 members of our cluster are looking forward to cooperation with “MIR.1200” or they already do”.

According to Gogela, Czech machine-building enterprises today supply several types of production for Russian NPPs either under construction or operation. However the producers are ready to take part in Rosatom’s projects of third countries’ markets.

For the “MIR.1200” leader, Czech Skoda JS, the Temelin contract is a good chance to restore competence. The owner, OMZ group, has invested more than RUB 1 billion for the enterprise modernization. According to Vadim Makhov, the OMZ President, during its existence Skoda has issued 24 full atomic reactor sets. Thus the Temelin project will allow Skoda to shorten the gap, opening new perspectives. By the way, another enterprise of the group, Izhora plants (Izhorskie zavodi) is about 300 years old and it has supplied 57 full sets of nuclear island.

The results of the tender for now, however, are likely to be postponed. Miroslav Fiala, Skoda General Director, is not expecting results before 2015. On the sidelines of the forum they were saying that the reason is political crisis in the country. Czech Parliament dissolved itself in August. Early voting is appointed for the end of October. This means that the new Parliament will start work in the first quarter of the next year. To actualize power strategy of the country and determine position concerning finishing of Temelin, they will need time. Meanwhile CEZ will have another chance to look through the members of the tender and their offers more carefully. Specialists believe that the election results won’t radically change the energy strategy that has been expecting ultimate decision for several years. Most influential parties of the country support nuclear energy development and believe an NPP in energy balance to be the strong side of local power energy. There are two companies wanting to build units 3 and 4 of the Temelin NPP: “MIR.1200” consisting of Skoda JS, Atomstroyexport and Gydropress and Japanese-American Westinghouse. According to the head of Skoda JS, by the end of the year both members have to hand in the specifications and supplements to tender documentation to CEZ. “We have revised our offer and are currently working on its final version, – said Miroslav Fiala. Leoš Tomíček also commented on the topic: “We received some notes, questions and specification from CEZ. We held two series of negotiations, went through the whole list. We’ll prepare written materials to substitute some parts of the offer by the end of October. While by the end of the year we’ll fully prepare the documents, since there has been quite many changes.”Rusatom Overseas Vice- President specified that the questions of CEZ are mostly connected with details: “For Temelin we offer a partial copy of units working in Russia, since the demands of our countries differ. In the Czech Republic there is another type of containment, the composition is slightly different, since we have to fit in the site. CEZ asked us to explain this moment, which is perfectly normal”. Tomíček also noted with pleasure that after the consultations the two parties began to understand each other better. He doesn’t believe that the reason of postponing the tender results is connected with tender offers. “It’s caused by the Czech crisis and we have something to fill in the pause, – he says. – I think CEZ will use the rest of the year for detailed study of the offers”. Not regarding the delay most specialists are sure that the Temelin construction sooner or later will start. With a complicated economic situation in the EU at a background, the industry that always provides jobs will always be attractive for young people.