Rosatom sets up company for foreign projects

Russia’s Rosatom state nuclear energy corporation is setting up a specialized company, Rosatom Overseas, for the construction of nuclear power plants abroad under the build-own-operate (BOO) plan.

According to a company source, Rosatom Overseas, which is to be registered in late June, will act as a customer, investor and owner in the construction of nuclear power plants in nearly a dozen countries.

At the moment, the Akkuyu nuclear power plant project in Turkey is being implemented according to this principle. Russia is now breaking the ground for the $4 billion, four-unit, new facility which it will eventually own.  A similar plan may be used to build nuclear stations also in Armenia and Jordan.

In an interview with the Voice of Russia, the Oil Industrialsts’ Union president Gennady Shmal said that the BOO system, where you build, finance and  operate a nuclear facility  before you make good the money spent, and then hand it over to the host country is a popular practice in today’s world because it works both ways. The host country gets a working facility without spending a penny, and the contractor expands it market and boosts its international clout.

Russia has already built nuclear stations in Iran, China and India using the so-called Engineering-procurement-construction scheme, which is less costly compared to BBO, because you just build a station while the whole construction is paid for by the host country.

The head of Russia’s National Energy Safety Fund, Konstantin Simonov, believes that the EPC scheme will not go anywhere, at least for now.

After Fukushima Rosatom ran additional safety checks at all its nuclear facilities simulating the situation that developed at the Japanese station in the wake of the March 11 earthquake. It transpired that all the Russian units, including the ones still under construction, were 100 percent safe. Meaning they would withstand any earthquake and tsunami without any leaks. This is exactly the kind of advanced technology Russia is going to sell abroad.

It’s also worth mentioning that since the Fukushima disaster none of Russia’s partners has backed off from cooperation plans with Rosatom.

After Fukushima Russia proposed toughening international safety demands for  existing and future nuclear power plants. The proposal made by President Dmitry Medvedev at the recent G8 summit in Deauville, France, was readily endorsed by all participating leaders.  The issue will dominate the agenda of next week’s IAEA General Conference in Vienna.

The Voice of Russia, June 11, 2011