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Rosatom promises to work with SA firms if selected as nuclear partner

4th July 2014

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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Russian State-owned nuclear corporation Rosatom has reiterated its willingness to cooperate with South African companies if it is chosen to build nuclear power plants in this country.

In line with the Integrated Resource Plan 2010, which outlines the country’s energy mix to 2030, South Africa intends installing 9 600 MW of nuclear power generation capacity.

The partnerships Rosatom envisages include localisation, technology transfer, involving the South African companies in the supply chains for the new nuclear power plants Rosatom is building in other parts of the world and skills development.

Responding to Engineering News during a press conference at Atomexpo 2014, held in Moscow last month, Rosatom deputy director-general for corporate development and international business Kirill Komarov confirmed that discussions on possible cooperation were being undertaken with the South African government.

He said if Rosatom was awarded the contract to install the total envisaged capacity of 9 600 MW, it would aim for 60% localisation.

“We will localise if we are awarded the contract to build all eight units,” he said. Each of the units will have a capacity of 1 200 MW, giving a total of 9 600 MW.

Komarov explained that building just two units, for example, would not justify significant localisation, as there would not be sufficient economies of scale.

“If we implement big projects, we transfer technology – we localise. It does not make business sense to localise when we implement small projects.”

Komarov’s pronouncement on possible localisation in South Africa came as it emerged that Rosatom, whose Rosenergoatom subsidiary operates 33 nuclear power reactors in Russia, grew the value of its foreign order book to $73-billion at the end of 2013, up from $61-billion at the beginning of that year.

The group intends further boosting the foreign order book to $98-billion by the end of this year.

Earlier this year, Russia concluded an intergovernmental loan agreement with Hungary that will pave the way for the construction of two units of the Paks nuclear power station. “We hope that the new contracts will be [in accordance with] our new integrated offer, where we offer . . . not only to design and build the plant, but also to deliver fuel for several decades [and] to offer maintenance and operating services,” said Komarov, adding that the Hungarian contract would include spent fuel handling.

Rosatom was also engaged in negotiations – which Komarov said were at an advanced stage – concerning the construction of power units in Vietnam and Bangladesh. This followed Russia’s signing of intergovernmental loan agreements with Vietnam and Bangladesh.

Komarov said Rosatom was also willing to assume the role of a direct investor in the overseas nuclear power plant projects it was involved in. The group was implementing a project using this model in Turkey and is to embark on a similar project in Finland. “We are to become co-owners of Finnish company Fennovoima, having obtained 34% of its shares . . . We are now developing the project as an investor.”

He pointed out that some of Rosatom’s clients were in a position to provide their own funding, cases in point being China and Iran. On whether it was not too risky to engage Rosatom to build a nuclear power plant and to also offer it the fuel supply and waste handling contracts, Komarov responded in the negative, pointing to plants in neighbouring Ukraine, whose relationship with Rosatom has not been disrupted by the ongoing ructions between the two countries.

“Fifteen units are operating in Ukraine – we do not have any issues. We are meeting our obligations, and our Ukrainian partners are also meeting their obligations. We are receiving payment for our fuel in advance and we remove spent fuel. Rosatom does not get involved in politics.”

Meanwhile, Komarov said the bottom line of the group’s international business was set to receive a further boost in the next few years from the VVER-TOI nuclear reactor Rosenergoatom was developing.
 

Rosenergoatom chief project engineer Dmitry Bugaev told reporters during a tour of one of the company’s sites that the VVER-TOI reactor would be 20% cheaper to build than the most recent design and that its construction would take about 40 months, down from current designs’ 60 months. The estimated operating life would be 60 years.

The VVER-TOI would be cheaper to operate. It would also offer enhanced safety, being capable of withstanding shockwaves with a frontal pressure of 30 kPa, tornadoes and hurricanes with speeds of up to 56 m/s and aircraft crashes. However, where the aircraft involved had a weight exceeding 400 t, the plant might not resume operations immediately after the crash.

Meanwhile, Rosatom director-general Sergei Kirienko said at Atomexpo 2014 that nuclear power plants were making inroads, with 72 currently under construction, ten more than last year. Most the plants under construction were in Asia.

“While the majority of functioning nuclear power plants are in Europe and the US, more than half the nuclear power plants under construction are in Asian countries,” he said, adding that the Asia-Pacific region was a priority for the Russian nuclear industry.

• Zhuwakinyu visited Russia as a guest of Rosatom.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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