OREANDA-NEWS. ROSATOM Deputy Director Kirill Komarov made a report at the Round Table “EU-Russia Energy Dialog: Competition and Cooperation in the Nuclear Industry” which took place in Brussels, Belgium.

Major topics of the report were areas of bilateral cooperation between Russia and EU, primarily in the areas of nuclear safety and joint business projects.

Mr. Komarov began his speech by emphasizing the importance of the recently signed Energy Roadmap 2050 between the Russian Federation and the European Union, which provides for cooperation in all spheres of power generation. However he mentioned that the Roadmap does not cover all the areas of potential cooperation and encouraged the parties to continue working within the Joint Thematic Work Group on Nuclear Energy established under the EU-Russia Energy Dialog.

Speaking about the specific areas of bilateral cooperation, Komarov set nuclear safety as the first priority. According to his words, Fukushima accident did not result in considerable decrease in demand for nuclear energy but emphasized special nuclear safety requirements. He also told about stress-tests held for all operating Russian NPPs as well as for new nuclear power projects of Russia.

“Stress tests showed that Russian NPPs are able to withstand external hazards without any threat to population or environment”, noted Komarov and invited European colleagues to see the results of stress tests on the web-site of the Russian regulator – Rosthekhnadzor.

He also drew attention to the fact that Russia and the EU had a close stance on safety standards, and also stresses that some of Russian initiatives to refine international nuclear safety regime had been already endorsed by the European Union. Furthermore, he encouraged European colleagues to move towards design of joint principles of safe nuclear power development, taking into account vast experience in operation of various types of reactors on the Russian and EU territory.

Joint business-projects were the other key topic of Komarov’s report. He noted that the basis for maintaining and developing business cooperation between Russia and Europe in nuclear energy sphere was primarily created by successful experience of the use of the Russian technologies in EU, where currently in five countries 18 Russia’s VVER power units provide the population with affordable energy.

“Basing on this experience we can further develop our cooperation. A number of European countries have plans to develop nuclear energy and construct new nuclear units. We offer our participation in the projects in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland, and Hungary”, Komarov said.
Besides he noted that in such projects ROSATOM offers maximum involvement of the local industry and European suppliers. As an example he cited the completion of Temelin NPP in Czech Republic. ROSATOM participates in the Czech-Russian consortium, which proposes to localize more than 70 % of all the supplies in Czech Republic, and moreover offers opportunities for attraction of the leading European companies such as Alstom, Rolls-Royce, etc.

According to Komarov, ROSATOM opens good prospects for European companies, being a leader of the global NPP construction market and implementing projects to construct 9 NPP units in Russia and 19 units abroad.

“Russian producers account for only 15% of total equipment supplies, while procurement by local companies is 30 to 40%, and another 45-50% can be offered to our partners among the largest global companies”, stressed the speaker.

As a pilot project of EU-Russia cooperation in the nuclear sphere ROSATOM Deputy Head named the project to construct Baltic NPP in Kaliningrad region.

Komarov said that European companies could participate in the project in various forms: as strategic investors (up to 49% of NPP shares can be offered to foreign companies), equipment suppliers, creditors or power purchasers. He also stressed the interest of the Russian party in energy sales on the EU territory.

Furthermore, as explained by Komarov, cooperation in NPP construction projects also envisages the joint work within environmental impact assessment and informing the public.

“To provide information to the neighbouring states a series of consultations on environmental impact assessment were held in 2011. Consultations were held with nine of ten neighbouring states. Our partners were satisfied with the amount of information provided”, told the speaker.

According to Komarov, certain benefits for both parties could be derived from the Agreement on synchronized operations of the national energy systems of Russia, Belarus and the three Baltic states, which is currently being discussed by the EU.

The Round Table “EU-Russia Energy Dialog: Competition and Cooperation in the Nuclear Industry” was held in partnership with the European Commission. At the event in addition to the Russian delegation participated such key representatives of the European energy industry as Peter Faross, Director at DG Energy in the European Commission, Christophe Behar, Nuclear Energy Director at CEA, as well as representatives of the European Parliament and other European politicians, businessmen, and experts.