OREANDA-NEWS. September 09, 2015. Egor Simonov, the Head of Rosatom in Southeast Asia, shared his view on the of the nuclear energy development in ASEAN countries at the Forum POWER-GEN ASIA 2015 in Bangkok (Thailand). He made a presentation in the frame of the session dedicated to nuclear power generation in Asia. The focus of the presentation was the main challenges facing East Asian countries in the implementation of national nuclear power programs.

"Such countries as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam are among the world’s leaders of industrial production growth, and consequently in power consumption. The nuclear power will allow these countries not only get the basic source of clean energy, but also will allow to get to the new level of development in general", he said.

According to his words, the realization of the project on the construction of a nuclear power plant could create about 60,000 of workplaces in different industries, will contribute to the growth of scientific and technological potential, will give an impulse to the development of education and generally will help to improve the quality of life through the creation of new infrastructure.

"The resumption of nuclear power generation in Japan - is a signal to other Asian countries, first of all for ASEAN countries, where, according to our estimates, can be built about 20 GW of nuclear power capacities. But that may happen only if these countries will show an unambiguous political commitment to the development of national nuclear power programs. We see several major challenges that humper the development of these programs, in particular, issues of safety, financing of the projects and the final cost of electricity, the development of the national nuclear infrastructure and the level of nuclear technologies public acceptance", the speaker noted.

He also highlighted that the task of a responsible vendor is to provide support of the client countries in these tasks solving. Mr. Simonov gave an example of Vietnam, where Rosatom is supporting the development of national nuclear infrastructure by implementing of the project to construct the county’s first nuclear power plant.

"Modern NPPs of 3+ generation take into account the lessons of Fukushima. For example, if a Russian NPP with VVER reactor such as the ones operating today in India and China were on the Fukushima site in 2011, such kind of accident would not have happened”, he assumed talking about nuclear safety.

Herewith for customers in Asia the cost of the electricity generated by nuclear power plants is a quite important aspect. "The net cost of electricity in nuclear power generation is one of the lowest. The task of vendors - to offer not just a power plant, but a kilowatt-hour of electricity at a reasonable price", the speaker noted and emphasized that Rosatom is able to make such a proposal to potential partners in Southeast Asia, since the corporation consolidates the full value chain in the nuclear industry and builds nuclear power plants around the world on a serial basis.

"However, despite the high level of safety of modern nuclear power plants and a number of benefits of nuclear power, there are still certain prejudices and myths existing towards it. In this regard, the governments of ASEAN countries willing to go nuclear should implement the communications and education programs for the population", said Mr. Simonov, also outlining the joint Russian-Vietnamese work the field of public acceptability of nuclear technology. He gave an example of the Information Center for Nuclear Energy in Hanoi, which was opened by ROSATOM and accepted 30,000 visitors in 2014.

In Southeast Asia ROSATOM implements projects for the construction of two nuclear power units with VVER reactors in Vietnam, and also develops the Centre of Nuclear Science & Technologies. Also this year the Russian-Indonesian consortium with participation of Rosatom has won the tender for the preliminary design of the experimental 10 MW reactor in Indonesia. The Russian company is also supplying isotopes to that country. Furthermore, the framework agreements on cooperation signed with the Government of the Union of Myanmar and the Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology.

The POWER-GEN Asia 2015 forum was held in Bangkok (Thailand) from 1 to 3 September 2015 in the frame of the ASEAN POWER WEEK. The event was attended by the generating companies in Asia and suppliers of equipment for power stations of various types from all over the world, representatives of engineering and consulting companies, as well as representatives of various public authorities of Asian countries.