Russian nuclear agency's operations unprofitable in 2002-2004

MOSCOW, January 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's financial watchdog said Friday that the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power had failed to break even in 2002-2004.

The Russian Audit Chamber released the results of an inspection into the agency's economic operations in 2002-2004 and found that the agency had made a net loss in 2004 of 1.3 billion rubles ($45.95 million). The debt of the federal wholesale electric energy market to the agency at the beginning of 2005 accounted for 7 billion rubles ($247.4 million) and increased to over 10 billion rubles ($353.5 million) in the first nine months of the year.

Auditors said an unbalanced tariff policy was to blame for the situation.

The Chamber said the Russian energy strategy until 2020 put nuclear power as one of the main guarantors of the country's energy security as plants would increasingly replace stations burning fossil fuels.

In 2004, nuclear plants produced 15.6% of the electricity in Russia. The Nuclear Power Energy Agency received about 74.6 billion rubles ($2.64 billion) for energy supplies.