French rail transport and power generation engineer Alstom signed a joint-venture deal on Monday with Russia's Atomenergomash to build Russian nuclear power plants, Reuters reports.
Alstom will have a 49 percent share in the venture to build so-called conventional islands -- essentially most of a nuclear power plant except for the reactor -- and the partners will invest over 200 million euros ($266 million) in cash and assets.
The joint venture is the first of its kind in Russia and comes as Moscow launches a new drive to boost civil nuclear power, over 20 years after the Chernobyl disaster exposed the failings of Soviet nuclear technology.
"This agreement is of major strategic and operational importance," Alstom Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Patrick Kron told a signing ceremony in Moscow.
"It is obviously an entry point into the Russian market, which is one of the top three countries for the future development of atomic energy generation, along with China and the United States."
Russian President Vladimir Putin used Russia's turn chairing the Group of Eight nations last year to launch a project to pull its civil nuclear assets into a state-controlled firm called Atomprom.
The project has drawn comparisons with gas monopoly Gazprom, the world's largest gas producer, which, after ownership of its shares was liberalised last year, joined the world's top-10 firms by market capitalisation.
Russia intends to double its nuclear power capacity by 2030 and hopes to boost its proven reserves of uranium, now nearly 1 million tonnes, to the world's third largest, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said recently.
ENTRY POINT
The joint venture will be based in Podolsk, near Moscow, and will draw on Alstom's 'Arabelle' half-speed turbine technology. Technology for the manufacture of steam turbines and generators will be transferred to the venture, Alstom said.
"It gives us privileged access to the burgeoning Russian market. This partnership will therefore strengthen our position as a technological leader in integrated conventional islands in what is a booming global nuclear energy market," said Kron.
He said the joint venture would build between two-and-a-half and three conventional islands a year, primarily for the Russian market, but would also seek export opportunities.
"The agreement demonstrates the strong intention of both sides to develop a long strategic, economic partnership," Atomenergomash said in a separate statement.
Atomenergomash is a subsidiary of state-owned Atomenergoprom, the state-owned company in charge of producing equipment for Russia's civil nuclear programme.
(Reuters, 02/04/2007)