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European Russia to raise nuclear power share of electricity

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MOSCOW, November 22 (RIA Novosti) - Nuclear power will account for 40%-50% of the electricity produced in European Russia compared to the current level of 30%, a senior official of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power said Tuesday.

"Today, nuclear power plants meet 30% of overall electricity demands in European Russia," Alexander Shmygin, head of the agency's nuclear power engineering, told reporters. "There is simply no alternative to the development of the nuclear energy industry in Russia. We plan to increase nuclear power production to 40%-50% of overall output in the future."

Shmygin said that to cover the energy deficit predicted for 2010, the agency planned to commission unit two of the nuclear power plant in Volgodonsk, south of European Russia, in 2008, the second unit at the Kalinin nuclear power plant in the southeast, and energy unit five at the Balakovo facility.

He said Russia was working to create a new type of reactor, the BBEP-1500. "We expect the design of the BBEP-1500 reactor, an evolution of the BBEP-1000 rather than a completely new model, to be completed in the middle of 2006," Shmygin said.

The new reactor will be put into operation at the Leningradskaya nuclear power plant in 2012-2013. However, some countries are still interested in the BBEP-1000 reactors, Shmygin added.

He said that on December 15 Russia was expected to present the feasibility study for the project to build a nuclear power plant in Bulgaria whose construction was launched in 1984 with Russian help. The tender was held in May 2005.

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