OREANDA-NEWS. May 20, 2009. While opening the meeting the co-chairmen of the Committee Vladimir Asmolov and Noel Camarca said that the past 15 years were quite fruitful for both parties. “We are very much interested in such cooperation as both parties need to quickly react to emerging demands. Energoatom Concern does its best to make this cooperation really fruitful and effective,” Asmolov said.

Camarca said that the companies enjoyed good human relations and it was a good basis for their successfully partnership. He said that the cooperation of Energoatom Concern and EDF covered such important directions as operation and construction of nuclear power plants and training of personnel and he was really amazed to see how many problems the parties had solved in the past years. 

The Energoatom Concern-EDF cooperation was started in 1994 and has gone through several stages since then: in the past 15 years Energoatom Concern has turned from a recipient of technical and financial assistance into an equal partner.

At the initial stage the projects were financed by EDF. One of the key elements of the cooperation was training of Russian specialists at French nuclear power plants.

The second stage started in 1998 when the parties signed a protocol on establishment of a joint bureau and agreed to jointly finance their projects.

At the third stage in 1999 the parties signed an agreement for cooperation of their activities, set up a coordinating committee and started full-scale cooperation on a parity basis.

In 2006 the parties signed a framework cooperation agreement stipulating exchange of information and experience between Russian and French nuclear power plants: Novovoronezh – Penly; Kalinin – Dampierre, Balakovo – Paluel, Volgodonsk – Flamanville.

22 measures were carried out in the framework of the agreement in 2008 in the form of meetings of the Coordinating Committee, seminars, conferences of project managers and the Supervisory Committee.

“In the near future we are planning to exchange advanced technologies and services with EDF, the acknowledged leader in the field of nuclear power engineering, and to study its positive experience,” Asmolov said.

In 2009 Energoatom Concern and EDF will enlarge their cooperation. They are planning to conduct over 30 measures in both France and Russia.