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Russia’s Rosatom, En+ may invite Chinese firm to reactor project

We do not rule out inviting a new investor to the project, including China National Nuclear Corporation, En+ Group’s representative Andrey Petrushinin said

MOSCOW, November 28. /TASS/. Russian nuclear power corporation Rosatom and businessman Oleg Deripaska’s En+ Group may invite China National Nuclear Corporation to their project of building a fast-neuron commercial reactor, En+ Group’s representative Andrey Petrushinin said on Friday.

“We are discussing possible further steps with Rosatom and do not rule out inviting a new investor to the project, including CNNC,” Petrushinin said.

In 2009, Rosatom and En+ Group’s unit EuroSibEnergo set up a parity-basis joint venture AKME-Engineering to develop nuclear complexes with SVBR-100 lead-bismuth nuclear fast-neuron reactors.

Rosatom said in October that the cost of the project had increased to 36 billion rubles from 15 billion rubles previously. “The estimated cost provided to us by designers turned out to be bigger than we planned,” Rosatom’s Deputy CEO Vyacheslav Pershukov said.

“We are currently discussing the way out with our partner — either to look for a new partner, or change technical decisions or invite international partners.”

He also said he believed that it is possible to reduce the cost of the project by at least 30% to 24-25 billion rubles.

The reactor could occupy 10-15% of the global nuclear small-and medium-capacity power market.

A source familiar with the talks said that interest in the project was shown by investors from Russia and Asia, including from China.