Russia As Energy Superpower
The Hindu: Opinion
July 29, 2006
By VLADIMIR RADYUHIN

Moscow plans an ambitious expansion of its nuclear energy sector.

Russia has drawn up plans to build up to 100 nuclear reactors over the next 25 years in an effort to reduce dependence on hydrocarbons and consolidate its position as the world's energy superpower.

Under an ambitious programme of expansion till 2030, it will build 40 nuclear reactors inside the country to more than double the nuclear generation capacity. Another 40 to 60 reactors are to be constructed for other countries as Moscow seeks to increase its share of the global nuclear market.

Russia has the world's largest energy reserves, accounting for 13 per cent of proven oil finds, 34 per cent of natural gas, and a quarter of all coals. It is the biggest natural gas exporter and the second largest supplier of crude. With the prices of hydrocarbons shooting through the roof, the Government decided it would be more profitable to set aside more coal, oil, and gas for export and for processing in the petrochemical industry, and scale down their use in electricity generation.

The new shift to nuclear power comes after 20 years of stalemate in the sector as Russia tried to overcome the shock of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Nuclear power today accounts for 16 per cent of the country's electricity generation, and the Kremlin has set a target to raise its share to one-quarter by 2030.

In the first phase, the Government plans to raise $55 billion of budget and private investment to build 10 nuclear reactors within a decade, lifting the volume of nuclear energy from 23,200 MWe to 35,000 MWe, or 18.6 per cent of the country's total. Beginning 2010, Russia will commission at least two nuclear reactors a year.

The long-term strategy involves replacing Chernobyl-type light water reactors with inherently safer fast breeder reactors with a closed fuel cycle using mixed oxide fuel (MOX) fuel. MOX is produced by recycling plutonium left in spent reactor fuel and from nuclear warheads. When thermonuclear fusion technology becomes available, Russia plans to mine helium-3, which is rare on the earth, on the moon for use as reactor fuel.

To ensure adequate financial, technological, and fuel resources for such a massive shift to nuclear power, Russia has moved to overhaul the industry and integrate it with nuclear energy facilities in other former Soviet Republics. The country's nuclear industry is currently a collection of disparate enterprises, factories, and institutes, some of which have already been turned into commercial entities with their capital divided into shares, while others have remained virtually unaltered since Soviet times.

It will be consolidated into a single vertically integrated holding with six share-capital subdivisions: uranium mining; uranium enrichment into fuel; power station construction; management of atomic reactors; nuclear fuel reprocessing; and nuclear machinery manufacture. The state will hold 100 per cent shares in all nuclear units, with private investors invited to help finance the new reactors in return for cheap, long-term energy supplies.

Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko, newly appointed head of Rosatom, the Federal Atomic Energy Agency, said he also plans to rebuild the Soviet-era nuclear industry complex spanning several former Soviet republics.

Although Russia inherited roughly 80 per cent of the industry potential, the main uranium deposits today are in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, while major turbine-building facilities are in Ukraine.

Joint ventures

Last week, Russia signed the first of three joint venture accords with Kazakhstan in the nuclear sector. Under the deals Russia will get access to Kazakhstan's uranium deposits, which account for 17 per cent of the world's reserves, and will, in return, lend high-tech know-how to build a small fast-neutron reactor.

The massive build-up is expected to help Russia win a bigger share of the global nuclear energy market. Today Russia controls 25 per cent of the world market of enriched uranium and nearly 50 per cent of the construction of nuclear reactors. Russia is currently building nine nuclear reactors Ñ three inside the country and six in Ukraine, China, India, and Iran.

Russia's plans for global expansion will get a major boost from a planned agreement with the United States on nuclear energy cooperation. The decision to sign such a pact, the first in the history of the two countries, was reached by Presidents Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush during their meeting in St Petersburg on the sidelines of the G8 summit.

While the U.S. is keen to get access to more advanced Russian technologies, such as fast neutron reactors, Russia is looking to earn billions of dollars in atomic power station construction, as well as fuel supply and reprocessing, once restrictions on any cooperation in the nuclear sphere with the U.S. have been lifted.

India may stand to benefit from Russia's nuclear industry expansion, which will enhance Russian technology export capabilities and bring down the costs. Russia is currently building two nuclear reactors at Koodankulam in Tamil Nadu, and is eager to participate in a big way in India's plans to generate 20,000 MWe of nuclear electricity by 2020.

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