OREANDA-NEWS. January 25, 2008. The organizers of the event were the biggest Russian nuclear fuel producer, TVEL Corporation, and its subsidiary, Chepetsky Mechanical Plant.

Over 150 scientists and experts from research and development centers of Moscow, St.Petersburg, Nizhniy Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Tomsk and other Russian cities attended the seminar.

It was the first such event in the history of the nuclear industry of modern Russia, a crucial step towards the revival of the traditions of the legendary Soviet Minsredmash (Ministry of Medium Machine Building). Veterans explain that the key reason why Minsredmash was so powerful was its innovative approach: it took it just 1–2 years to do from an idea to a machine (unlike some other industry who spent as many as 7–8 years to put ideas into practice).

The first vice president of TVEL OJSC Vladimir Rozhdenstvensky said that his company was ready to support science. “We are ready to invest big money in prospecting projects, to buy necessary equipment and to create new jobs. We will support prospective projects at any stage of their implementation, even, at zero level. I mean that we are ready to finance not only ready projects but also preliminary research, development and testing,” Rozhdenstvensky said.

Earlier, the vice president of the company Aleksey Klimov told journalists that in 2007 TVEL’s non-nuclear production made up 3.7bln RUR. By 2015 the company is going to increase the production of rolled titanium, stainless steel, super-conductor materials, machinery and turbines, lithium, calcium and commercial zirconium.

The company is also going to produce components for medical tomographic scanners. “We are considering the possibility of supply of super-conducting wire. Particularly, we are planning to supply the first 500–1,000 kg pilot batch in 2009 with further possibility of export of bigger batches of up to 10 tons,” Klimov said. In this sphere TVEL hopes for cooperation with world leading companies, particularly, with Phillips. “However, we are not yet considering the possibility of joint ventures with foreign partners,” Klimov said.