Sanctions against Russia imposed because of Moscow’s actions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, have created more problems for Russia’s partners than the country’s nuclear industry, Rosatom France CEO told New Europe in an interview.
“Yes, wewere,” Andrey Rozhdestvinsaid, asked if Rosatom was affected by the sanctions. “But it’s more about general atmosphere and general vision of people we work with and I think sanctions created more problems for our partners in order to get things like compliance and approvals and authorisation internally because they strongly believe – our partners – in projects we are doing together but due to the sanctions it took and it takes more time in terms of getting some approvals,” Rozhdestvin said on the sidelines of the European Nuclear Power Conference in Brussels on June 29. “Now it takes more time but in most cases we get to ‘yes’ because it’s beneficial for both parties and we’re trying to talk business, not politics and finally that’s the approach which we need–strategy.”
Sanctions between the European Union and Russia are not beneficial for any trade going on between the two but in contrast to many other industries there is a specific exemption for nuclear power which was unanimously confirmed by all EU member states.
Despite the fact that there are not many opportunities to construct new nuclear plants in Western Europe, the Rosatom France head said his company can offer its European partners reliable and efficient solutions.
“In WesternEurope– ifweare talking about new builds, I don’t see much opportunities in terms of new builds in Western Europe and you can count in one’s fingers the new builds in Western Europe – in Finland, inHungaryan intheUK, most probably.”
The focus is Czech Republic, Hungary, the Balkans, Southeast Europe and Central Europe, he said.
However, regarding new builds, Rosatom expects a lot of growth from emerging markets. “That’s why Europe is very important for us because we would like to go there to participate in growth in the territory of emerging markets together with the European companies. We’re looking for partnerships in order to deliver to the consumer our technical solution to be very specific.As anexample, in our new builds we are going to usetheAlstrom turbine. That’s a very critical part of a nuclear power station and it’s very important to have reliablepartnersin order to deliver to the customer a very good product. That’s about international cooperation as far as international Rosatom projects are concerned. We need partners and we believe that these partners are in Europe,” the Paris-based Rosatom executive said.
“Secondly, there are certain activities in terms of lifetime extension and we believe that experience we gained in Russia can be quite relevant and quite important in order to improve the performance and safety of nuclear power stations in Europe and we offer our competences to our customers. That’s a market that exists and it’s very important to be there,” Rozhdestvinsaid.
Regarding decommissioning, he noted that it’s a very complex issue and there are some countries where issues are being solved.“ButI’m not sayingtheyhave been solved.If an EU countrydecidedto decommission all nuclear power,that’s their decision.Wewould like to contribute in the very complex and delicate decommissioningchallenge,” he said.
Turning to Finland, he said the Nordic country has a very good energy mix and very good climate situation. TheLoviisa nuclear power station is one of the most effective nuclear power stations of its kind in terms of electricity production in terms of cost and in terms of safety, he said, adding it is not by surprise that Finland decided to keep developing the nuclear programme.
Rozhdestvin said theSTUKnational regulator is very demanding. During the last years Rosatom met the requirements ofSTUKin order to enable Fennovoima to submit licensing documents.“Once the projectis licensed itwill be an attractive model for other investments,” he said.
Regarding France’s Areva, which is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, and the French government has backed EDF’s plan to buy a controlling stake in the company to keep it afloat, Rozhdestvinsaid Areva’s financialsituation is worrying. “We are very concerned because Areva is our long-term partner and we have been working together since last century, let’s put it like that,” he said laughing. “Our cooperation started before Areva was created withCogemaandFramatome, two parts of Areva. Obviously we are very concerned about that situation because first ofall wehave contracts with them. Secondly, we have a lot of projects with them. Thirdly, we are very much concerned about the people working there because they are very competent, highly-professional people,” he said.
The fourth reason, Rosatom is concerned about Areva’s troubles, is that it’s not good for the nuclear industry in general. “What will people from emerging marketsthink? They’re saying ‘why are you proposing certain solutions when you have such big financial issues?’ So it’s not good for the industry and we have to first of all help Areva and the French nuclear industry to get out of that situation and prove the credibility ofnuclearcompanies in general” Rozhdestvinsaid.
While the European public has largely turned against nuclear since the Fukushima accident in Japan in 2011, Rozhdestvin said Rosatom is still committed to nuclear.
“I remember at Atomexpo next year after Fukushima, [Russia’s Rosatom CEO Sergei] Mr Kirienko said at that time very clearly that regardless that tragedy we still believe in nuclear energy and we are committed to nuclear energy and we will keep developing nuclear energy… If we keep developing nuclear energy we willgenerategrowth,” he said.
“We decided tofollow that approachand I think as a result we have dramatically increased– by factor three –our backlog in terms of international orders. Even after Fukushima we still believed in nuclear energy and we didn’t drop it and we expected thegrowththatfinally occurred,” Rozhdestvinsaid.
World nuclear generation in 2014 rose 1% compared to 2013, the first annual gain since the 2011 accident at Fukushima I in Japan curbed global nuclear output sharply, according to an analysis by Platts. “It’s a good sign,” Rozhdestvinsaid.
Regarding the outlook for nuclear energy, he opined that “during the next years we will have dramatic changes in terms of electricity consumption intransport and you’regoing tohave more electricity vehicles and it can increase dramaticallyconsumption of electricity.Inthat case we willneedgrowth in the energy generation and obviously you will need more stablesourcesin terms of base load.And it willrequire more nuclear generation and that will be possible if we manage to deliver what we committed to deliver.All that ispossible if we find a right way to cooperate with Europe, it’s all linked up.”
“And I think also when we talk about climate it’s very important to talk about not only about generation but also about transportation.Ifwe manage to do both it makesitmuch easier to achieve what we have declared,” Rozhdestvinsaid.
Asked if there is competition between nuclear and natural gas, Rozhdestvin said, “Within Russia we have that competition and it’s quite difficult for us to compete because in Russian market we have gas and coal. In coal we have also very strong lobby. But still as far as energy is concerned, we’re supposed to increase the share of nuclear from 17% to 25% by 2030 and that reflects our visioneven in case ofa countryas richin terms of resources – you have natural gas and you have petrol – nuclear is very important and 25% most probablyisthe ideal mix for Russia.Butif you talk about other countries where you don’t have gas, petrol and coal and you don’t have hydro, what is the choice? So nuclear is probably the most economically acceptable choice for a lot of countries,” he said.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/rosatom-seeks-eu-nuke-partners-for-emerging-markets/