This draft is a backbone document, a launch pad for upgrading the system's operation. This certainly does not mean that the nuclear power sector, which has always been in the foreground of the country's economy, has been failing to carry out its tasks. However, the country is now in a new geopolitical and market environment, which calls for original decisions and prompt responses. The stream of changes has finally reached the sensitive and conservative nuclear power sector.
Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power, hopes that the Duma will consider the draft law at the first meetings of its autumn session in September. He thinks that the document reflects the procedures and methods of funding the target program for efficient development of the sector. Using a range of state-of-the-art management tools, Kiriyenko would like to give a boost and add market savvy to the nuclear industry, thus making it competitive.
Sharing these aspirations, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed Kiriyenko to develop a target program. The industry's top experts were involved in the work. However, the president personally set the objectives of national importance and approved the prepared draft, which was assigned presidential status.
What are the main priorities of this large-scale action plan? The military component is the number one priority. Clearly, the attitude to Russia in the world, its rights as a great power and its national security to a great extent depend on the efficiency of its nuclear complex. While the military component is the responsibility of the Ministry of Defense, the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power plays a prominent role, too.
"We can defend ourselves, and we can make others treat us with respect. There is no doubt about that, either in the near future or in the long-term," commented Kiriyenko on the current state of the nuclear industry.
However, he was less optimistic when he talked about the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes. At present, the share of Russia's energy produced by nuclear power plants is quite small, only 16% (in France the share is 80%). The current minimum goal is to maintain this rate. That is not easy to accomplish, because Russia has recently been constructing, on average, only one nuclear unit every five years. The decline in public support for the nuclear power sector to a great extent results from the radiophobia caused by the Chernobyl disaster and, certainly, from the nationwide recession caused by the dissolution of the Soviet Union, sweeping changes in public and political life and financial difficulties.
The existing nuclear power plants were built in the 1960s and 1970s, and their working life is coming to an end. Kiriyenko painted a bleak picture: "If we don't do anything, by the year 2025 there will be no nuclear power industry at all in Russia. It will disappear for technical reasons: old plants will be decommissioned and there will be no new plants."
The only way out is for the government to roll up its sleeves and start building at least two nuclear power plants (and, in the future, three or four plants) a year. This is the priority task stipulated in the federal target program for the development of the nuclear power sector. The optimistic scenario aims even higher: the share of nuclear power in the national power grid should be 25%.
The draft federal budget for the year 2007 already provides for the expenditure of 17 billion rubles on the first two nuclear units. Additional funds will come from the resources of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power. The number one priority is the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant, one of the oldest in Russia, which serves the St. Petersburg Region and other territories in the northwest. Construction of a new plant, Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant-2, will start as soon as next year. Furthermore, the capacity of the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant, whose main consumer is the Moscow Region, will be increased. Another priority is the Rostov plant in the town of Volgodonsk, a critical source of power in the Russian south.
The federal target program gives an enormous boost to innovation projects, e.g., the fast neutron reactor BN-800. This reactor type solves the problem of fuel self-sufficiency, a paramount issue which will determine the future of the global nuclear power industry. Along the way, this technology solves the spent fuel problem because there will be practically no spent fuel. Under the program, a new-generation BN-800 reactor will be constructed beside the old BN-600 reactor at the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant in the Sverdlovsk Region, Urals.
"Russia has a unique position in the area of fast neutron reactors; we are the leaders in their development, and this means we are uniquely competitive," believes Kiriyenko.
According to the ambitious plans for a nuclear breakthrough stipulated in the federal target program, Russia should carry out large-scale expansion in the global markets, both in the field of power plant construction (40 to 60 nuclear power plants are to be constructed abroad between now and 2030) and in the fuel sector.
"Today, Russia's share in uranium enrichment is 47% in the European market and 50% in the U.S. market," said Kiriyenko. He also mentioned something Russia cannot agree to: the single-mediator approach supported by the United States. "We will do all we can against antidumping procedures, which, in the current situation, are unfair," he said.
The huge Russian nuclear power system is still federal property, and it does not look like the government has plans to sell it to anyone. The country needs a qualitative breakthrough to strengthen its position. The industry employs 400,000 people, and this figure includes enough highly skilled experts to solve all the challenging tasks on the agenda. It is now Kiriyenko's job to create a first class management system to run the program and lead the way to its success.
