All news

Rosatom confirms its participation in nuclear tender in Czech Republic

MOSCOW, June 09. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, said it is ready to take part in a new tender for finishing the construction of the Temelin nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic.

“We’re ready to work on the project jointly with our Czech partners within the MIR1200 consortium,” the Rosatom general representative in Central and Eastern Europe Alexander Merten told ITAR-TASS on Monday.

CEZ Group’s deputy chairman, Vaclav Paces, said he intended to declare a new tender in 2015 for building the plant’s third and fourth units.

In April 2014, the previous tender was cancelled. It included the Russia-Czech consortium “MIR1200” and Westinghouse, the Japanese-owned US company. The tender was annulled due to high electricity prices that made the construction of units unprofitable.

The portfolio of Rosatom’s nuclear orders will double in 2014 and reach up to $100 billion.

In May, the corporation signed an agreement with Kazakhstan to build a nuclear power plant. It is expected to build the third and fourth units at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, India, within the Russian-Indian roadmap. Finland signed a contract with Rosatom to build a nuclear power plant in the country’s west. The Russian corporation continues the works in Hungary, Bangladesh and Vietnam. Rosatom and Iran seek to expand cooperation over the Bushehr nuclear power plant. The construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus is ahead of schedule.

Rosatom is planning to open an affiliated company in Brazil with the headquarters in Rio de Janeiro.

The corporation cooperates with Argentina that is planning to build new units at nuclear power plants. Rosatom supplies isotopes for Argentina’s nuclear medicine.

Rosatom will receive around 645 billion rubles of budget funds for nuclear power development in 2014-2020, according to a government ruling released on Monday.

The government approved a 2012-2020 development program for the nuclear power complex, with total investments exceeding 899.7 billion rubles, including around 255 billion rubles in 2012-2013 and over 147.0 billion rubles in 2014.

According to the program, Russia's nuclear power plants should produce at least 184.3 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electric power in 2020, up from 172.0 billion kWh in 2013.

The program also encompasses an average annual launch of at least 1 gigawatt of nuclear power capacities in 2012-2020.